


A Young Bromance

by Mxrvelous_Bxrnes



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Boy x boy, Explicit Language, M/M, Science Boyfriends, Science Bros
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2018-10-24 07:01:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10736580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mxrvelous_Bxrnes/pseuds/Mxrvelous_Bxrnes
Summary: What happens when two people who are the complete opposite of each other meet and grow feelings for each other?.Well when you have Tony stark, one of the most popular guys in the school. He is confident, bold, out spoken and doesn't care about what others say or think about him.And you have Bruce banner, he's not popular, out spoken or confident. He's shy, quiet and sensitive towards and around others.At first glance you think that these two totally different people would never get along with each other but we all know that opposites do attract.Sciencebros/ Avengers: High School AU





	1. A Typical High School Stuff

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, This is my first time writing an avengers high school AU so I'm not very experienced with it. But it is worth a try since this is my first published story on here. 
> 
> Tony, Bruce and the other avengers are going to be teenagers since the story is set in high school I'm just clarifying this so none of you get confused. 
> 
> If you can't tell already I really ship Tony and Bruce and I'm a huge fan of boy x boy fanfics so of course the two guys are going to get together in this story. So just warning you all, if you don't like the sound of two boys being together then this fic is not for you. 
> 
> Some of the chapters will have some mature content  
> (of course it will it's boy x boy what do you expect?). I will of course give you a heads up about it before you continue reading. So if you see this ***Mature Content Warning*** then you'll know. 
> 
> If you happen to see any spelling and grammar mistakes then please don't be mean to me about it. Everyone makes mistakes in their writing so I'm not the only one. It's my first published fanfic so try to go easy on me. 
> 
> And just one more thing. The idea for this fic was requested by @DMJDHP so it is dedicated to her . 
> 
> That's all from me the author, If you like the story please comment, favourite and vote 
> 
> Enjoy ;)

'buzzzzz...buzzzzz...buzzzz...' 

Tony stark groaned to the annoying sound of the alarm going off. He pulled his pillow over his head trying to block the sound of the alarm out but it the longer it went off the louder it got.

"Shut up!" He yelled eventually slamming the button to turn it off, the buzzing stops and quiet fills the room again. Tony sighs of relief and places his head back onto his pillow trying to go back to sleep as he's comfortable in his bed. He's about to drift off again until...

Tony!...Tony, are you up!?!?" His mom called from downstairs. Tony just ignored her not wanting to get up from his bed. "Tony!!!!" She called again a little louder this time, once again he ignored her. His mom, now getting irritated with her stubborn son stormed up the stairs whilst calling him.

Tony groaned in annoyment at his mom's obnoxious yelling he put the pillow over his head again. His mom walked over to his door and started knocking on it loudly "Tony!...Tony!...TONY!!!" She yelled really loudly.

Even though tony is getting annoyed with his mother's yelling and banging on the door he still ignores her. "ANTHONY EDWARD STARK YOU BETTER GET UP THIS INSTANT!!!!!" She screamed at the top of her voice.

 

 

Tony let out a long irritated groan as he finally got up from his bed "For god's sake, she's so annoying" he muttered to himself as he walked over to his door opening it to see his mom standing there with her hands on her hips. "So, you finally decided to get up" she said sounding slightly annoyed.

Tony rolled his eyes at her "Yeah, yeah I'm up, are you happy?" He said with a slightly rude tone before turning away and walking over to his bed; fixing the covers. His mom shook her head and her sons response she didn't saying anything about his rude tone as she's used to her son being in a bad mood in the mornings. Tony wasn't a morning person he hated getting up so early. He finished fixing his bed and he get out a loud long yawn before slumping back on it.

His mom looked at him and shook her head "Are you always this lazy In the mornings?" She asked. "Yup" Tony replied, still half tired. With another shake of her head his mom walked over and sat down on the end of his bed "Come on now tony, if you don't hurry up you'll be late" she said looking at him.

"Well school shouldn't start so damn early then" Tony deadpanned looking back at his mom who just sighed. "Come on...get up" she shook his leg before standing up, tony didn't move "I don't wanna..." he responded turning away from her. His mom sighed "Tony..." he ignored her "Tony.." he shook him slightly trying to get him up which he didn't.

"Tony, you're acting so childish right now" she said beginning to get annoyed with her son. Tony rolls his eyes in annoyment "Fine. Mom I'll get up" he said whilst he pushed himself up off the bed. "Good. Now hurry up and washed and dressed, you don't want to be late" she responded as she began to walk out of the room "Yeah well it's not like I'm missing anything" Tony scoffed. His mom just looked at him and sighed before walking out.

Tony shook his head "mothers..." he muttered whilst going over to his wardrobe to get out some clothes. He sighed looking through his wardrobe rummaging through all his clothes. "I've worn all of this stuff..." he sighed in annoyment trying to find something to put on.

Eventually he got out a plain white t-shirt, blue jeans and a black jacket "Oh well this is just gonna have to do". He picked up his clothes and headed for the bathroom; he shut the door behind him and stripped down getting into the shower, he turned on the water and began to wash himself. He heard a knock at the door and groaned "What mom?!" He yelled.

"Don't take too long in there" she responded. "Yeah. Sure mom" Tony sighed and continued to wash himself. A few minutes later he stepped out the shower and dried himself off before getting dressed. He grabbed a hair brush using it to brush up his hair and make it look neat. He was one of the most popular guys in school he couldn't have people seeing his hair messy.

Once he was pleased with how his hair looked he walked out the bathroom and back into his bedroom. Tony picked up his bag. started packing his things, his study books, his notepad, a calculator, a hair bush and mirror; he always packed them just in case he has to fix his hair again during the day. He was about to zip up his bag when his phone buzzed off he sighed slightly "wonder what it is" he said to himself whilst he put down his bag and walked over to his drawer; picking up his phone. He had received a text message; it was from Clint. "What does he want?" He opened the message and read it

_*Hey, where r u?*_

_Tony quickly replied to the message typing_

_*I'm at home still*_

He was about to put his phone down but he quickly received another message from clint _._

_*K, see ya at school*_

 

 

 

 

Tony couldn't be bothered to respond again he put his phone in his pocket, picked up his bag walking out his room and downstairs into the kitchen. He saw his mom sitting down eating a bowl of multigrain cereal he sat down across from her "Mom, I thought you were making me breakfast?" He asked slightly confused.

"Well I would have made you breakfast if you had gotten up earlier" she replied before a putting spoonful of cereal in her mouth. Tony rolled his eyes and got off the chair going over the fridge hoping to find something to eat in there but as usual there was nothing that tony found appetising that was until he noticed a packet of doughnuts.

He took one out of the packet and took a bit bite out of it before shutting the fridge. His mom saw him eating the doughnut and slightly scowled at him "Tony, you can't eat a doughnut for breakfast, it's unhealthy" she said lecturing him. "Well, I wouldn't be eating it if you had just made me breakfast instead" he replied taking another bite whist his mom just shook her head at him.

Tony sat back down on the chair pulling out his phone playing on it. There was a small moment of silence between them the only thing that they could hear was the sound of the game tony was playing and the loud crunching of his mom eating cereal.

Tony was beginning to get annoyed with the crunching so he started a conversation "Hey mom, where's dad?" He asked curiously "He went to work" she replied taking another bite. Tony took another bite of his doughnut before responding "Oh, when did he go?, I didn't hear him". "He left early tony, you were still asleep when he left".

"But, he promised to drive me to school" Tony said slightly disappointed. His mom raised an eyebrow at him "Well, unlike you, tony your father is quite capable of getting up really early so if you really wanted him to take you to school you should've gotten up earlier". Tony scoffed quietly at her but didn't say anything he just continued to eat his doughnut.

His mom smiled to herself she knew that when tony didn't say anything back to her it meant that she proved her point. Tony took one final bite of his doughnut and looked to see if his mom had finished eating as well which she had. She got up, put her bowl in the sink and picked up her purse and the car keys. "Come on tony let's go" she said tapping his shoulder "Ok mom" Tony put his phone back in his pocket, picked up his bag and stood. They both walked out of the house and into the car.

"You ready to go?" She asked looking at tony with a smile on her face he just looked back at her with a displeased look on his face "Mom. It's school...do I look ready?" He asked rhetorically. She just chuckled at her sons response before starting the car and driving to the school. It wasn't to long of a drive from their home even though tony wanted the drive to be longer but unfortunately for him it wasn't.

His mom parked outside the school and looked at her son smiling just to annoy him he looked back her with a serious expression "Mom...do I have to go in?" He asked of course obviously knew that he had but just asked for the sake of it. She put her hand on his shoulder "Yes tony, you do" she replied tony let out a displeased groan. "You'll be fine" his mom said patting him on he head.

Tony undid his seat belt and picked up his bag "Yes mom, I'll try to be fine". His mom smiled and kissed his cheek tony smiled at her before opening the door and getting out closing the door. His mom smiled and waved him goodbye tony waved back whilst watching her drive off. Tony sighed heavily "Right. Time for another day at this godforsaken place" he said to himself whilst walking up the stairs and into the building.

                                                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

 

Tony confidently walks through the school hallway with his head held up high and a smile on his face. Everyone just stops and stares at him when he walks past them, it happens all the time he walks into school. People give him compliments all the time, people always want to talk to him, people want to hang out with him and even people want to be him.

Tony doesn't get why he's so popular but he loves it, he loves all the attention get gets. Even though his friends tell him that he gets to much attention and sometimes takes it for granted, Tony stark doesn't care what people say or think about him or what he does. "Damn, why he hell did I carry so many damn books?" Tony mutters in annoyment as all the books are making his bag really heavy it's causing his back to start aching. "I need to empty some of them out".

He picks up his pace slightly as he wants to hurry and get to his locker as he doesn't want to suffer carrying a heavy bag all day. "Fucking hell, my frick'n locker is all the way down the corridor" he groans. Someone hears him groan and looks at him funny, tony looks scowls back at them "What?, you looking at?" He asks with a slightly harsh tone "Never heard a guy groan before?".

The person doesn't answer and just walks away from him "Yeah that's what I thought" Tony said to himself. He finally gets to where his locker is but sees a boy wearing a purple sleeveless hoodie, black ripped jeans, black and white trainers. Tony walks over closer to his locker and to the person standing by it; he is playing on his phone not noticing tony standing there.

Tony smirks as he knows who it is "Hey" he says to him but doesn't get a response "Hey!" He says a little louder, still no answer. Tony slams on the locker door hoping to get their attention. But it still doesn't work he slams on the lock again "Hey!. HEY!" Tony groans in annoyment as this person is beginning to irritate him. He slams on the locker a few times "Hey Barton!" He yells. "Huh?, What?" Clint finally turns to face tony who has an irritated look on his face.

Clint smirks at him and pulls his hood down Tony's face becomes more irritated when he sees that Clint had earphones in the whole time. "Why do you look so irritated tony?" Clint asks curiously. Tony doesn't say anything he just points to the earphones at first Clint is confused "My earphones?" he takes them out of his ears "What about them?" He asks. "I was trying to get your attention but you just kept ignoring me, that's pretty rude" Tony replies. Clint just smiles at him "Hey, I couldn't help it that I couldn't hear you, I was listening to music" Clint responds.

Tony just shakes his head and rolls his eyes before opening his locker "Besides you were taking to damn long to get here, I was waiting so ages that I eventually got bored so I started to listen to music". Tony looks back at him "Then if i was taking to long and you got bored why didn't you just go hang with the others?" Tony asks curiously whilst starting to empty his bag. "Well, Steve, Sam and Bucky ditched me to go and have a race outside. Thor had to go do this...thing?...and Natasha... well I dunno it's natasha, she just likes to do her own thing". Clint said.

"Oh...right" as all tony responded because at the moment he was busy taking all the heavy books out of his bag and putting them in his locker. Clint just watched in confusion as he emptied his books "Uh...Tony....why'd you have so many books in your bag?" He asked. Tony just shrugged his shoulders "I dunno, I just like to come extra prepared, even though that means causing me back pains". Clint just shook his head at Tony's response, he didn't understand why tony always had to always be "extra prepared" for everything. "And done" Tony said sighing of relief as he put the last book in his locker and shutting it "Now, I don't have to have carry that extra weight on my back" he smiled as put his bag back on him.

"Urm tony...I hate to ask this but...." Clint trailed off nervously tony looked at him with a raised eyebrow "Clint, what is it?" Tony asked in concern not liking how this is going to sound. "Did you put your history book in your locker?...because if you did then you'll have to take it back out, since we do have history" Clint said biting his lip nervously. Tony groaned in annoyment "God dammit!, I hate carrying my history book it's so damn heavy. And I also really hate history" he sighed heavily and opened his locker again taking out his history book. "I mean look, it's got so many damn pages" Tony starts flicking through them "not all of this stuff could have happened".

Clint just rolled his eyes hearing Tony moan about history was common thing everyone always had to hear all the negative things he had to say about it. Tony angrily shoved the book back into his bag and put it back on. "Tony, you make a huge fuss outta everything" Clint replied folding his arms "No I do not make a fuss about everything, Mr. Barton, I just-" Tony just cut off by the bell ringing and the sound of loads students walking and running to get to class.

"I'm sorry Mr. Stark I didn't quite catch that...what was you saying?" Clint said sarcastically joking and teasing tony "Never mind...Let's just get to class" Tony replied Clint just chuckled to himself. As the both walked off to their class. It was always a struggle getting through the hallways it's always so crowed with students especially when the bell goes off and everyone is trying to get to their class on time. Even if you try to cut around the crowds you'll just find yourself bumping into another one.

Tony hated walking through the crowded corridor it just annoyed him; he hated people bumping and pushing into him, he hated people stepping on his foot or almost tripping him over. Clint on the other hand didn't mind so much he just always pushed his way through the crowds, not caring if he pushed anyone over. "Excuse me!, pardon me!" Clint yelled pushing through the crowd "Hey, try'n to get through!" Someone bumped into him "Oi, I'm walking here!".

Tony just shook his head at clint "Even if you yell at people to move out the way, it's still gonna be crowded" he said trying to prove a point. "Yeah well it's still worth a try" Clint responded whilst shoving someone out the way. After what felt like and eternity of walking through the crowds.

 

 

                                                                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

Tony and Clint finally managed to get to class on time. "It took a while to get here, but at least we're here on time" Clint says walking in with tony behind him "Yeah Yeah, and that's a good thing how?" Tony asked in his usual sarcastic tone. Clint didn't answer he just scoffed and sat down; putting his feet up on the desk and folding his arms.

Tony gave Clint a look of   "you know that you're get in trouble for that".  Before he sat down at his own desk that was on the row next to clint's. He sighs heavily "great a whole boring hour of this" he moans to himself   "Urm...who are you talking to?"  Tony herd from behind him, he gets so embarrassed when someone hears him talk to himself. He turns around to face the desk behind him and the guy sitting at it.

He had long brown hair that fell in front of his face, a black cap on his head and he was wearing a navy blue hoodie. He was giving tony a serious but confused expression which tony just smiled at. "I was just talking to myself, no need to worry it, scruffy" Tony replied. Bucky's facial expression went from serious and confused to just plain serious "Don't call me that." He said with a stern tone obviously not liking the nickname tony gave him.

Tony just chuckles "Why not?, it's funny" he replies still smirking. Bucky narrowed his eyebrows at him "No it's not, I hate the name scruffy" Bucky's tone now sounding even more serious than before. "But me and Nat call you it all the time, so you should be used to it by now" Tony obnoxiously commented. "Well clearly you and Nat can't see that...I am not a dog!!" He half yelled whilst folding his arms and flicking his hair from his face "You've both been tormenting me with that name ever since freshman year".

Tony let out another chuckle "Then that explains why you're so miserable all the time, seriously you need to lighten up more" he implied. Bucky scowled at him and scoffed "Yeah...whatever..." he deadpanned flicking his hair again. "Geez Bucky, you act like such an emo sometimes" Tony admitted watching as Bucky flicked his hair. "I'll have you know that I'm not emo" Bucky assured. "But you-" Tony began but just interrupted by the sound of the teacher slamming a book down and coughing trying to get his attention.

Tony turned back round to face the teacher who had a very displeased look on his face. Tony didn't even hear him walk in or start teaching. "That's the second time this week you've talked over me whilst I'm trying to teach" the teacher ranted "one last time and you get a detention". Tony just looked down at his desk,running his fingers through his hair nervously before replying "Ok. Sorry sir" was all he could say. He looked at clint who was smirking at him and he could hear Bucky snickering quietly from behind him "Haha, you just got in trouble" Bucky whispered.

"Shut up, I'm used to it" Tony whispered back just smirking. Yes, he was used to getting in trouble by the teachers for talking in class when he wasn't supposed to but he really didn't care at all about it. And hearing that he might get a detention doesn't even faze him that much, to him it's more of a pointless threat than anything. The teacher noticed that Clint has his feet on the desk he scowls at him "And Mr. Barton, get your feet of the desk, the school paid for desks so you could use them to work on not to use them as a foot rest" He scolds.

"Oops sorry..." Clint responds taking his feet off the desk. He looks at tony who had a huge smirk on his face "Shame Clint, I told you so" Tony whispers. Clint narrows his eyebrows at him before facing the front. Tony snickers quietly at Clint and also faces the front, listening to the teacher lecture the class about the French civil war. Tony doesn't care about any of things that happened in the past, he wasn't even born then so why the hell should he be bothered about it.

Every few minutes he turns around to look at the clock to see how long they have till the lesson ends but time always seems to go so slowly. Tony tries to do some of his work just to pass the time but it never seems to help, he just gets so bored and distracted. About half an hour into the lesson tony hears someone snoring he turns round behind him just to see Bucky with head down and arms folded on the desk asleep. Tony just shakes his head and smirks turning back round, he can't really blame bucky for going to sleep the atmosphere in the class is so damn boring.

                                                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

 

The lesson eventually ends and the bell rings tony sighs of relief "Finally..." he says getting up from his desk putting his bag back on. Clint walks over to him "Why are you so happy?" He asks seeing the huge smile on Tony's face. "Cos, this boring lesson is over" Tony replies "I don't understand why you hate history so much" Clint says looking at him confused.

"Clint, every single thing we learn about has nothing to do with us, none of us existed when all this stuff happened so why do they bother teaching us about it" Tony replied "And you have to know that I don't care about anything that happened B.T...." Clint raised his eyebrow in confusion at Tony's response "What the hell does B.T mean?" He asked "Before.Tony" answered tony in a sassy tone, moving his head and arms in a sassy stance.

Clint rolled his eyes and looked at Bucky still asleep on the desk "Urm...should we wake him up?". "Nah.." Tony smirked "let's ditch him". Clint smiled and the two of them walked out of the classroom. Tony and Clint walked down the hallway, it's less crowded than before. "Hey, tony I sorta feel bad for leaving Bucky" Clint says with the sound of guilt in his voice. "Don't worry about it clint" Tony responds putting his arm around clint "Besides he ditches us all the time" Clint just smirks at tony's response.

"Hey tony! Hey clint!" They both herd from behind them. "Urm...Hi?" Tony responded whilst turning around to face whoever had called them. It was a tall, blonde haired guy wearing a jocks outfit, with his hands placed in his pockets smirking at both of them. Tony rolled his eyes at him "Hi steve..." he said with a slight displeased tone "Hey tony" Steve replied still smirking. "Hey Clint" "Hi" clint responded smiling back at him, a nicer response than Tony's.

"So, why exactly did you call us then?" Tony asked curiously whilst raising an eyebrow. "No reason really, I just wanted to talk to you guys" Steve answered, still giving tony that smirk to which he rolled his eyes to. "Right...ok..." Tony murmured but loud enough for Steve to hear. "What's your problem, tony?" Steve asked "You're giving me that vibe that you don't wanna talk to me". "Hey, I never said that I didn't wanna talk to you" Tony half snapped "You never said but you're making it obvious that you don't want to" Steve assured. Tony give him a slight glare then muttered something under his breath.

Steve didn't hear it but Clint did, he scowled at tony and give him a rough hit on the arm "Ow!" Tony cried out "What the fuck was that for!?!" He yelled, rubbing his arm in pain and glaring at Clint who looked back at him with a raised eyebrow but said nothing. Obviously tony knew why Clint had hit him but didn't mention it and to Steve that obviously meant that tony had said something bad about him but didn't know or wanted to know what exactly was said.

This was a relatively normal thing between both Tony and Steve. Everyday they would say things about one another and mutter things under their breath. Most of the things that are said aren't very nice and very rude at times. Sometimes what they say to each other can be brushed off as a joke between friend but other times it can result in an argument and at most times can lead to a punch up that neither Tony, Steve or any of their friends like to talk about or even mention.

Steve just narrowed his eyes at tony not saying a word but making it painfully obvious that he knew that tony had said something. Tony wasn't even bothered about what he had muttered, heck he didn't give a damn about it and most likely wouldn't care if Steve found out what he had said. He just simply narrowed his eyes back at Steve and the two engaged in a stare down.

Clint on the other hand just stood there looking at the two of them not saying anything, he just pulled put his phone and started texting to avoid the awkwardness between Tony and Steve. The awkward silence was broken by the sound of footsteps running down the hallway. Tony, Steve and Clint looked out the hallway to see Bucky running towards them; cursing loudly.

"FUCKING HELL!!!..YOU GUYS!!! He yelled loudly. Tony and Steve just looked at other confused whilst Clint looked away awkwardly "Geez... he sounds pissed" he said; looking down at his phone. Bucky had stopped running and was now walking tiredly over to them. "You...guys...left me... in...the...classroom.." he panted in annoyance "Well... sorry, we didn't mean to" Tony replied.

Bucky just glared at him "I find that hard to believe considering that you left me in there asleep and didn't have the decency to even wake me up!" He yelled loudly. Tony raised his hands in defence "Alright. Alright just calm down its not that deep, I told you I was sorry" he tried to assure Bucky who in turn just rolled his eyes and shook his head, obviously still annoyed "Still. You could have still woke me".

Tony just rolled his eyes and scoffed "Whatever...". Their was a small moment of awkard silence before Clint spoke up "Well.. I'm gonna go class now, So... see ya" And with that he walked off. Steve just watched him go, Tony just shook his head and Bucky didn't pay no mind.

 

 

                                                                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Bucky looked over at Steve and smiled "Hey steve" Steve smiled back "Hey buck". "Sorry I didn't notice you there, because I was disrected by a certain person" he shot a glare at Tony who shot one back. Steve just laughed it off making Tony shoot a glare back at him, making bucky laugh. "Come here, you punk" Bucky held out his arms "Jerk". The two embraced in a hug  whilst Tony just scoffed and folded his arms "You guys are werid" he said.

The two just looked at each other then back at Tony "It's not werid it's called Friendship" Steve stated "Yeah you should try it sometime" Bucky added, raising an eyebrow. Tony just groaned "Yeah. Yeah... Let's just go before we're late for second period" he turned and began walking ahead of them Bucky and steve slowly following behind.

Tony turned to face them "Come on then move your asses faster" he asserted, moving his hand in a shifting motion. "Alright. Alright..." The two said in unison; picking up their pace. Tony sighed heavily and rolled his eyes.  "Yep, just a typical high school day"..


	2. A Sad and Stressful Morning.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce Banner has a very unpleasant morning.  
> From the momment he gets out of bed to ariving at school 
> 
>  
> 
> Everything just isn't okay...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Urm... Hello everyone 
> 
> I know it's been a very very very long time since I've updated this story. I do have my reasons why that is.
> 
> My personal life was kinda hectic at the time and I didn't really have any time to write anything. My mental state was not in a good state at all. Depression is no joke.. 
> 
> I had some drama with friends and family that needed my attention and I couldn't rest until it was all resolved. It is now thank god. 
> 
> Writers block also held me back. Everytime I would go to write nothing flew into my mind and it was frustrating. It got to the point where I was considering giving up on this story. I hated everything I had written and wanted to delete it. 
> 
> I took time away from writing anything, just to clear my head. Eventually I did decided to come back and I reread everything I had written so far and surprisingly I liked it. I decided that I wasn't gonna give up this early. 
> 
> So I got my fingers ready and began to type..
> 
> Thus eventually creating this chapter for you all :) 
> 
>  
> 
> Enjoy ;)

_**'Knock Knock Knock'** _

Bruce Banner groaned sleeply at the sound of his bedroom door knocking. He hated hearing that knock in the mornings as it meant that he had to get up and out of bed.

 **'** **_Knock Knock Knock'_ **

"Bruce, are you up?" A soft female voice called, his mother. Bruce let out a soft yawn and a sigh before calling out to her. "Yeah I'm up, come in". The door opened and his mother stepped in with a tired yet cheerful smile on her face. Bruce sat up in his bed and returned the smile. "Hi mom"

"Hey Brucie"

she said, he could hear the tiredness in her voice. She slowly walked over to him and sat at the end of his bed. "How'd you sleep?" She asked.

"Ok I guess.." he sighed "kinda hard to when you two are arguing loudly"

he looked at her only to be returned with a sad and regretful look on her face. He hated that look.

She breathed out a sad sigh before speaking

"I know Bruce.. I'm sorry... it's just.."

she paused and looked away. She couldn't finish the sentence, she didn't know how. Bruce could tell that she regretted being so loud and argumentative last night. But, he knew that it wasn't her fault.

He reached out and softly grabbed her hand, holding it comfortly. She looked back at him, that said look still in her eyes.

"I know mom, It's ok.. I know you didn't mean to be so loud.. it's not your fault.."

He tried to be reassuring to his mother but he could tell that she still felt bad about it. He hated that she always felt that way. The argument wasn't her fault it was his. It was always his.

"I can't help it though Bruce, he just gets so loud and aggressive and the only way for me to get through to him is to also be loud and aggressive.." His mom paused again.  
"I don't want to be like that.. but sometimes I don't have a choice".

She looked at her son who's face was now full of sadness and slight irritation. He wasn't irritated at her but of the words that were coming out her mouth, that always were coming out of her mouth. Bruce had herd those same words over and over and over again _'_ _I_ _don't want to be like that'_ and ' _I_ _don't_ _have a choice'._ He didn't blame her for saying those words, he could never. He only blamed the person who made her say those things and he hated it. That person being his father.

"You understand that, right?.."

He was pulled out of his thoughts by his mother's question. He quickly nodded

"Of course I understand, mom.. I don't blame you for being that way, I would never" He reassured, whilst gently rubbing her hand.

"Thank you Bruce" She replied, a warm smile on her face. Bruce returned the smile.

"Now, you better get outta bed and get ready for school"

Bruce frowned at that word _'school..'_ God, he hated that place. All he wanted to do was stay in bed and now move.

"Do I have to?"

He asked, obviously knowing what the answer was gonna be. His mom just nodded before standing up from the bed.

"Come on Bruce, you need to".

Bruce groaned and just gave his mom a pleading look of _'please let me stay with you'_ She shook her head and just smiled, it was like she was reading his mind. He groaned again before pushing his bed covers off and slowly getting off the bed. Even though he really didn't want to.

Once off, he walked over to his mother and wrapped his arms around her, She returned the gesture and hugged her son lovingly.

"I love you, mom"

"I love you too, Bruce"

They embraced each over for a few minutes before she began her way out of his room. She quickly turned to face him again and spoke "Oh and I would hurry up and use the bathroom before your father wants it" Bruce nodded at her. She smiled at him then left.

 

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

 

 

Bruce ran from his bedroom and hurried into the bathroom, locking the door behind him. He didn't have that long to use it, for two reasons. One. Because he had to go to school and didn't want to be late and Two. Because he didn't want his father to be banging his fists against the door and yelling at him to

**_'Hurry the hell up!'_ **

 

Like always. His father was still in bed, asleep but he still had to be quick.

Bruce stepped into the shower and turned on the water, letting the water fall onto him. He liked to have a nice shower in the mornings but because of his miserable father he could never fully enjoy them. He let out a sigh and rubbed the body wash onto his skin. As he began to wash he could hear the faint sounds of movement from parents bedroom.

"Shit.. he's awake"

Bruce began to feel anxious, he didn't want to be yelled at for taking too long so he quickly finished washing his body with soap and quickly rinsed himself off.

 He grabbed a towel and wrapped it round himself before unlocking the bathroom door and stepping out. Bruce hurried back into his room and closed the door. He herd the sound of footsteps and the sound of a gruff male voice go towards the bathroom. His father obviously. Bruce let out a sigh of relief "That was close" he said to himself.

 He walked over to his wardrobe and rummaged through his clothes, trying to find something to wear. He didn't have a lot of clothes so most of the time he had to wear things twice, something people at school made fun of him for and he didn't have any 'trendy' or 'fashionable' clothing it was all pretty plain, another thing people made fun of him for. He disliked it a lot. Eventually, after rummaging some more he just grabbed a dark grey t-shirt, a pair dark blue track bottoms and a purple hoodie. He sighed a little before putting them on.

 

Once dressed he looked at himself in the mirror, broken mirror to be precise thanks to his angry father and the fight they had just the other day. He sighed at the sight of himself, nothing about him was fashionable, he was just plain and boring. Even if he tried to make himself look good at all, he would just fail. Just like all the other students and even his father have said to him. And now, looking at himself in the broken mirror was just making him feel worse. Again, he sighed sadly and walked away from the mirror. He picked up his rucksack and put all the things he needed for the day in it, ' _that_ _would_ _probably be_ _stolen_ _or chucked out carelessly by other people_ _throughout_ _the day.'_

 

 After that he left his room and walked downstairs into the kitchen where his mother was preparing their breakfast. Well, mostly his father's breakfast as according to him mattered the most. His mother turned to him and smiled warmly, Bruce returned the smile and sat down at the table. "How was your shower?" She asked "Was okay, although I had to rush" Bruce replied. His mom let out a sigh but continued with making breakfast. He was watched as she did, she was obviously rushing it because she wanted it to be ready by the time his father came downstairs. Last time when she left it too late his father yelled at her for taking to long and when Bruce tried to defend her he also got yelled at.

 Bruce let out a disappointed sigh, it so loud enough that his mother turned around to face him. A concerned look on her face.

"What's wrong?" She asked. 

 

He sighed again before speaking, "Mom, It's not fair that you and me have to rush everything in the morning just because of him. He always yells at us when we 'take too long' but he gets all the time in the world to do the things he wants. We've been putting up with for ages now and I'm tired of it".

 

Bruce let out a huff of irritation and looked down at the table.

 His mom was silent for a moment, she knew what her son was saying was the truth and she agreed with it but there was nothing she could do or say that would change anything. She placed her hand on his shoulder comfortly and rubbed it softly.

 

"Bruce, I know.. but no matter how much we complain about it nothing is every going to change" she said with sorrow in her voice

 Bruce looked up at her sadly, he didn't like to hear his mother say those things. It hurt but again, it was the truth and he couldn't deny that

 

"It still isn't fair though.. he-"

Bruce was cut off by the sound of heavy footsteps coming down the stairs. His mom cursed quietly and quickly went back to finishing breakfast whilst Bruce just sat in silence, anxiously waiting for his father to walk in.

 

 

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

Eventually, his father entered the kitchen and Bruce's nerves immediately shot up. He didn't know what kind of mood his father was in, most mornings he was usually grouchy and never in the mood to talk. Bruce was unsure on whether to say anything to him or to just stay quiet, he really wasn't in the mood to get yelled at.

His mother turned around to face his father, a forced smile on her face

"Morning Brian"

she greeted attempting to hide her nervousness. Brian looked her and grunted in response

"Rebecca.." he responded coldly.

Rebecca didn't react much to his cold tone as she was used to it at this point.

"How did you sleep?" She asked

" _Fine_." was his response.

Rebecca wasn't sure whether to continue having a conversation as it was clear that Brian wasn't in the mood.

"Is my breakfast ready yet or do I have to wait another half an hour like the last time?" Brian asked, his cold tone still present.

"Ah. Yes... it's ready" Rebecca replied "I'll serve it out now".

Bruce watched as his mother quickly grabbed plate and began to place the food on them. He could clearly see how nervous she was from her rapid movements and her shaking hands. Brian watched her for a few moments before taking a seat at the table across from Bruce. Bruce herd his father sit and his heart began to beat rapidly, he immediately looked down at the table, refusing to look at his father. He didn't want to look at him let alone talk with him. Rebecca walked over to the table with two plates of food. "Here you are" she said as she placed Brian's plate down in front of him

"About damn time woman" he said coldly.

Rebecca didn't respond and just placed Bruce's plate down before going to get hers.

Brian looked at his plate and let out an irritated groan

"Rebecca.." he said.

She turned and looked at him "Yes Brian?" She replied.

"Have you forgotten something?" He asked.

"Urm.. I don't think so.." she replied, slightly confused about what he was talking about.

Brian groaned in irritation again before speaking

"For god's sake woman. My beer!" He half yelled.

Rebecca faceplamed herself, feeling stupid for for getting "Oh right.. how could I forget.. I'm so stupid".

She went over to the fridge and pulled out a beer then handed it to Brian who in turn snatched it from her.

"You better not forget next time.." He scolded with a glare.

Rebecca remained silent and just sat down and began eating.

Bruce picked up his fork and began to quickly eat his food, he didn't like to rush his breakfast but he wanted to get out of the kitchen as soon as possible and away from his father. Brian shifted his focus towards Bruce and glared at his son who stuffing his face with his food.

"Hey Bruce!" Brian called.

Bruce stopped chewing for a moment when he herd his name leave his father's mouth.

 _'_ _Shit_ _...'_ he thought.

He really didn't want to talk to him right now, so continued to eat and pretend that he didnt hear him.

"Hey!, don't act like you can't hear me!" Brian yelled again

"I know you herd me".

Bruce still didn't respond.

"Bruce!" Brian yelled out even louder this time.

Bruce sighed softly before speaking

"Y-yes?.." he replied softly.

Brian grunted in annoyment "Why are you rushing your food?.. you're making a mess.." he said.

Bruce didn't want to answer the question so he just shrugged his shoulders.

"Urm...because.. I-"

He began but his father cut him off

"-Look at me when I'm talking to you!"

Bruce slowly and anxiously lifted his head to look at his father. He could clearly see how annoyed he was by the way he was glaring at him.

"Now I'm gonna ask again.. why are you rushing?". Bruce could tell that his father demanded an answer and he wanted it fast and truthful.

"Well, I'm rushing because... because I was late to school last time and I want to quickly leave so I can get there on time" Bruce answered, trying his best not to sound nervous. Obviously he was lying but there was no way he was gonna tell his father the real reason. Which was him.

Brian raised an eyebrow at his son, not fully convinced due to the way Bruce was acting and the tone of his voice but he just shrugged it off.

"Well if you keep stuffing your face like that you're gonna choke" Brian scolded "Slow down, so you don't make a mess of yourself".

Bruce just stayed silent and looked at his father with a slight glare, it's not like he cared about Bruce's well-being. He knew that his father would probably prefer it with he choked.

"Alright dad" He said softly before continuing to eat the remains of his food. The kitchen was now silent, not one ounce of conversation was going on between them. Nor Bruce or his mother dared to say anything to each other let alone to Brian.

After breakfast was done. Rebecca took their plates and began to wash up and Brian stood from the table.

"I'm off to work now" he said looking at Rebecca.

"Alright Brian, have a nice day" she replied with a warm smile only to get a groan in response from Brian before he made his way out the kitchen.

Bruce sat still in silence until he was sure his father had left. He didn't want to say anything in case his father herd and yelled at him. Once he herd the door open and close he sighed in relief.

"He's gone, finally..." Bruce said as he faced his mother "I honestly hate having him around, he just makes it so unpleasant and awkward and uncomfortable".

Rebecca sighed and nodded in agreement "I know but it is what it is".

"It's still not fair he speaks to us that way.. I bet no one else has to put up with that every morning" Bruce spoke, clearly irritated. Rebecca stopped what she was doing and walked over to her son, gently placing her hands on his shoulders.

"I know. But we aren't everyone else. Besides we don't know everyone's circumstances. Yes, I dislike the way he speaks to us but there's nothing else we can do"

"But Mom.. you always say that.." Bruce responded, looking up at her with a sad look in his eyes. He grew tired of hearing his mother repeat the same things over and over to him.

Rebecca sighed sadly. She knew that Bruce hated to hear her say the same thing but at this point she didn't know what else to say. She always tried her best to comfort him and not make him upset but she wasn't succeeding in doing so.

Bruce sighed and looked away from her. It was clear that she had nothing else to say to him at this moment so the only option was to just take her word for it and move on.

"Anyways, I have to leave now. I don't want to be late, unlike last time" He said, slowly getting up from his seat. Rebecca nodded "Yes, you best be leaving now". Bruce picked up his bag and put it over his shoulder. Truthfully he didn't want to leave but obviously he couldn't stay.

He smiled at his mother and wrapped his arms around her, She did the same and embraced him warmly.

"I love you mom" he said softly

"I love you too, Bruce" she replied, placing a soft kiss on his forehead.

Bruce pulled away and warmly smiled at her one last time

"Bye Mom"

He said before turning away and leaving

"Bye Bruce".

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Bruce stepped outside and shut the door behind him. He let out a long sigh of relief that he had somehow managed to survive yet another morning all of that.

"I'm glad it wasn't as bad as last time" Bruce uttered to himself as he shuddered at the thought of the last morning he spent with his father and how it left him in tears and how much worse this morning could have gone.

Thankfully, it didn't. However, it didn't take away from how awkward it was. Bruce shook his head, pushing all those negative thoughts out of his head and began to walk. He wanted to have a good day today without an ounce of negativity.

The walk to school was calm and pleasant, it always was. There wasn't anything for him to worry about. It was an opportunity for Bruce to clear his head and mentally prepare himself for the day ahead. Deep down he could feel his anxiety slowly building up as he approached the school. It was building up the more and more he got closer. He hated the fact that he had to leave his home to get away from negativity just to be put right back into it. His school life was bad, not as awful as his home life but still pretty bad.

It was only a ten minute walk from his home to school but with his on going anxiety it felt much shorter as before he knew it he had finally reached the school.

"Ugh.. Great.. I'm here.." He muttered to himself miserably. He knew the momment he stepped onto those school grounds everyone would be looking and laughing at him, bombarding him with their comments and insults about his appearance and such.

Almost everyone would do it, from the beginning of the day right til the end of it. There was no way to avoid it, The name calling, The pointing, The laughing. It was consistent throughout the day, no matter where he was people would always have something to day. In class, In the hallways and especially at lunch, that was the worst.

It wasn't just the verbal comments. It was what people wrote about him as well. People would pass notes around about him to each other, write insults on the walls, on the desks, on the lockerse and even in the bathroom stalls. There were everywhere. Bruce didn't even need count how many times he had seen something offensive about him on his locker. The was one incident where some people thought it was funny to post the insulting notes inside his locker and when he opened it he was bombarded with notes flying out and everyone was crowded around laughing. The notes were only a minor thing in comparison to hearing actual insults coming from people's mouths. Sure, he could always throw the notes away but he could never stop people from saying things.

But that wasn't the worst of it...

People would take it further and even be physical. It varies from having things thrown at him from screwed up paper, pens, pencils and erasers to people throwing food and even trash. Bruce could never forget when some guy even threw mud at him and it was a direct hit to the side of his head. It was a humiliating experience.

There was also the constant pushing and shoving, the poking, the pinching and the extreme ones the punches and kicks. Bruce could recall the countless times where people would purposely kick their legs out in front of him and he'd always trip over. One incident in the hallway where he had been tripped and landed face first onto the hard floor, the impact was so hard that it left him with a bleeding nose. Luckily it wasn't broken but it didn't take away from the pain and being laughed at by everyone only added to the hurt that he was already feeling.

Bruce never could understand why he was always the main target of the bullying, sure there were others who endured the same treatment as him, however he was always targeted the most. From the freshman years til now, the bullying was never ending and over the years it seemed to get worse and worse. Despite his pleas to his parents to pull him out and move him to another school, they would never head to his wishes. It was always the same excuse of how they would have to move homes but could never afford to do so. He knew that his parents knew about how awful his school life was, His mother obviously cared and would do anything for his wellbeing, she would most certainly pull him out of that school if she had the choice...

  
but he also knew that his father, for the most part didn't care about how the other students were treating him as he was no better than them. He demanded to his mother that Bruce remained in the school and She obviously went along with his demands, to avoid getting on his bad side and he would always tell Bruce to

 _ **"Man up!"**_ and _**"Stop**_ ** _being_** ** _a damn wuss!"_** and that he just had to just _ **"Put up and shut up"**_ with it all.

And so he did...

 

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

 

 

Bruce slowly walked towards the entrance of the school. He was clearly feeling nervous about the potentially dreadful day ahead. He considered just running inside in an attempt to avoid other people but that idea was quickly scrapped as he could hear the voices of other students and he immediately knew that there was no avoiding them. Bruce caught sight of the other students. Three of them actually, the three he wanted to avoid the most.

The first of the three were Glenn Talbot. Bruce's life long adversary and main tormentor since freshman year. From the first day Bruce started at the school, Glenn was always the one who started it all. The main cause of all the bullying. The one who started the insults, the one who would always threw the first hits and the one who everyone went along with.

It all began when Glenn would constantly throw jabs at him about his appearance. Bruce didn't have a lot of clothes so that he had no choice but to wear something more than once. Of course that would be noticeable to people and Glenn certainly did notice.

 

_**"Tramp!"**_

**_"_ ** _**Wearing** _ _**the same clothes three times a week. Gross!"**_

 

He would always yell out loud so that people would hear. People caught on and started yelling out the same thing. Bruce tried to ignore it but to no avail, it just continued on and on.

Glenn began to take it further by making up a joke over it with Bruce being the butt of it. He would tell people that Bruce came from a poor, broken family, his father was drunk and unemployed and that his mother had to make clothes from scraps of trash. It started as a small joke between his friends but eventually it spread throughout the whole school. People were so naive that they believed it to be true and jumped on the hateful bandwagon against Bruce.

He was the ringleader and everyone would listen to him. It didn't help that he was one of the popular ones, he had a whole group of friends that followed along with his every move. That of course gave Glenn a huge ego boost and another reason to put Bruce down He was the ringleader and everyone would listen to him. It didn't help that he was one of the popular ones, he had a whole group of friends that followed along with his every move. That of course gave Glenn a huge ego boost and another reason to put Bruce down.

 

The second was Emil Blonsky. Another adversary and tormentor. He was Glenn's best friend, or _"crony"_ as Bruce would describe him. He was just the same as Glenn. Bruce had to suffer getting tormented by him as well. Emil was a little more aggressive than Glenn, he would still throw insults but he mainly just skipped to physically hurting Bruce. He grew enjoyment out of constantly tripping Bruce over, shoving him into the walls and lockers. Emil was quite intimidating, due to his tall and brawny physique. That obviously worked to his advantage.

Bruce learnt that the hard way when he tried to stick up for himself after Emil had aggressively hit him on the back of the head. He thought the best way to defend himself was to throw a few punches in, that's what his father always told him to do. Bruce attempted to throw a punch to Emil's face but to no avail. Bruce was much shorter than Emil, when he swung it missed his face and Bruce ended up only hitting his arm. Emil, being the agressive person he is, assumed that Bruce wanted to fight.

Obviously, that only ended up with Bruce on the floor, battered and bruised, with tears streaming down his face and the whole school laughing at his dismay. He was humiliated and what didn't help was that he was branded a

_**"Weakling"**_ and _**"A whimp"**_.

 

From that day on Bruce never tried to stick up to Emil and tried to stay as far away from him as possible, just to avoid getting beaten up and being embarrassed in front everyone. Emil would of course tease him about it and call him a

**_"Pussy"_** everytime Bruce walked away.

It was worse when both of them were together. Glenn and Emil would tag team with the cruelty. There was no way to avoid either one of them. Wherever Glenn was, Emil wasn't far behind

 

The third was Emil's girlfriend, Nadia. She was just as bad as the two. She was all about gossip and spreading rumours. Every rumour that Bruce had heard about himself would, for the most part, derive from her. Nadia went along with everything her boyfriend or Glenn did.

 

 

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

 

 

Bruce did not want to start of the school by being encountered by them. He glanced over and saw that they were in deep conversation with each other. He let out a small sigh of relief, maybe he could quickly run pass them without being noticed. Bruce begin to speed walk towards the entrance, his head was looking down and his hands were gripped onto the handls of his bag thightly. He was nervous about potentially being spotted.

_"I_ _don't_ _wanna get caught"_ He thought to himself as he continued walking. The entrance was closer now, maybe he had done it.

Bruce did another quick glance, seeing that they hadn't noticed yet put his mind at ease, but he didn't want to take that chance. He saw how close the open doors to the school were now and just ran inside. A few people gave him confused and dirty looks but he didnt care. He had made it.

He let out a sigh of relief and wiped his forehead from the small beads of sweat. "I made it, thank god" he glady uttered to himself. He looked around and saw that people were still looking at him weirdly, nothing new there it happened all the time. Bruce just brushed it off and went over to his locker. He heard some of the students snickering as he walked over, it was pretty obvious that were laughing at him. It was what they always did everytime he stepped foot in that school. What they were laughing at however, he didn't want to find out. Bruce ignored the laughter the best he could as he approached his locker..

 

 

His face then dropped when he saw it had been vandalised once again. On it contained the words:

 

**_'BRUCE BANNER EATS SHIT!!!'_ **

 

It had been written in huge black marker in all capitals. He just stared at the message, a sad expression on his face.

 

 _"That's what_ _they_ _were_ _laughing about..."_ He thought to himself.

 

The other students who walked by just glanced at the message and burst out into laughter. The message was big enough for everyone to see.

"Ha!. So True!". One boy yelled as he walked by. That caused everyone to laugh even more

"Bruce Banner Eats Shit!, Bruce Banner Eats Shit!" Someone chanted in the background.

 

Bruce was upset about it, but he wasn't surprised in the slightest. Everyday he would come in to see a new message written on his locker, always in big and bold font just for everyone to see. It was always end with people turning it into a joke and teasing him about for the rest of the day. It had practically become ritual.

Bruce just sighed, he glared at the message as he took off his bag and unlocked his locker and opened it, he then opened his bag and began the books he didn't need inside it.

"Did you like the message we put up for you?" A male voice asked. The sarcasm just rolling of their tongue.

Bruce didn't even need to look to know who it was. He could tell from the sarcastic tone of voice that it was the one person he wanted to avoid the most and the mastermind behind it.

_"Glenn..."._ Bruce didn't want to respond, he didn't want to give him any attention. Bruce just went about his business.

But given the type of person Glenn was, that wasn't going to be easy.

Glenn just stood there and watches as Bruce plied his bookd in his locker. A smug grin on his face. He could clearly tell that Bruce was purposely ignoring him, to him that meant he had gotten under Bruce's skin and it was exactly what he wanted.

He let out a small chuckle before beginning to speak.

"You know, Banner-"

Bruce shuddered at the sound of his last name coming from Glenn's mouth. There was something about the way he said it that made Bruce feel uneasy. He really didn't want to hear what Glenn had to say.

"- You can try to ignore it all you want, but... There's no hiding from the truth". Glenn stated. That smug smile still on his face.

"I mean, Come on. Let's be real. People really don't need it to be written down for them to know. They can clearly tell just by looking at you.. even though there isn't much to look at". He continued.

 Bruce had eventually finished putting away all his books into his locker. He really wanted to get away from Glenn.

 

"I'm surprised you even have all those books.Given that poor, disgusting and trash home you live in. I bet your parents couldn't afford all that so they had to steal it."

Glenn was really jabbing in it now. Everyday he had to make those comments about his home and family. They of course weren't all true. Yes, his home life wasn't prefect and neither was his father, but they weren't poor, they certainly weren't trash and they could affored stuff.

He didn't want the school day to start like this, he wanted to just go about his business without being tormented. This is what Glenn always did. He knew just how to provoke Bruce and he relished in it. This is what Glenn wanted to happen, to give Bruce a bad start to the day just he could enjoy his.

  
But Bruce had had enough...

  
_***BANG!***_

 

He had slammed his locker shut, the sound echoed loudly through the hallway. The other students had stopped what they were doing and glanced over. Bruce did get the satisfaction of startling Glenn but it didn't take away from his constant jeering.

Bruce put his bag back over his shoulders and turned away from Glenn, without saying a word. He walked off, ignoring all the starring and mutters from the other students and headed straight for class, getting away as far from everyone else.

 

" You Eat Shit!. And _YOU ARE SHIT!!!"._

Glenn yelled, he made sure to emphasize the last part. Bruce herd hear all the students burst into laughter again. They then all began chanting loudly.

 

" _BRUCE_ _BANNER_ _EATS_ _SHIT!"._

 

 

He could hear it loud and clearly. They were enjoying every second of it.  
It meant nothing to them... but to him it meant everything... and it really hurt.

 

 

Bruce stopped walking, letting out long sad sigh. He could feel his eyes begin to water.

 

 

_"I eat shit..."_

He muttered to himself miserably as tears streamed down his face.

 

 

 

  
  
  
  
  
  


 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew... 
> 
> Sorry for making this chapter sad. I got a little upset myself when writing this becaue I've struggled with bullying and verbal abuse in my life of I understand the struggle. 
> 
> I was wanted to show how much of a struggle Bruce's life is for him. He doesn't have a good home life and certainly doesn't have a good school life. Wherever he goes there is always negativity. 
> 
> Don't worry the next chapter will be more light hearted. I promise
> 
> Until next time ;)


	3. Awkwardness & Embarrassment.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Awkwardness and Embarrassment ensues with the classroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had no Idea on how to title this chapter.. So this the best I could come up with..   
> Anyways, Enjoy the Chapter.

Tony was making his way to second period with Steve and Bucky trailing behind. He had walked ahead of them because he wanted to get to class on time, he was notorious for always being late and he wasn't looking forward to being scolded about it for the one hundredth time. Tony didn't have time to wait around for Steve and Bucky to catch up with him, he had already told them several times to hurry up but to no avail. 

He glanced over his shoulder at the two and rolled his eyes at the sight. Steve and Bucky were taking their time, talking among themselves and laughing. Tony let out an annoyed groan, it was just typical of Steve and Bucky to be in their own world with each other but right now was not the time. 

"Hey Love Birds!" Tony called out. 

Steve and Bucky stopped talking and turned to face him. "Yes?" They both responded in unison. 

"I would appreciate it if y'all would shut up and moves your asses faster!" Tony replied, a sharp tone in his voice. "I don't wanna be late because of you two". 

Steve and Bucky both scoffed and began to walk a little faster to catch up with Tony. 

"You know Tony, If you were truly concerned about being late you would have made your own way there instead of waiting for us" Steve commented. 

Bucky nodded in agreement "True."  Tony said nothing and kept silent. "You're silent because you know that I'm right" Steve admitted proudly. 

Tony knew deep down that Steve had a point but he certainly wasn't going to admit it because he didn't want to give Steve the satisfaction of being correct and wanted to avoid having it rubbed in his face. He just rolled his eyes and kept on walking, not giving a response. 

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

Bruce was walking down the hallway alone, as usual. Everyone else had a group of friends to walk to class with or at least one person with them. He didn't really have anyone, at this point it was another thing he was used to. However, right now he just wanted to be alone, he didn't want anyone near him or to talk to him. Especially after the afwul event that happened earlier. 

He had went to his first period feeling distraught after everything went down. He had cried his eyes out on the way there, he didn't want to go to class and was considering skipping it. However, he didn't want to get scolded by the teacher for not turning up and god knows how his dad would react if he found out about it. Bruce had no choice but to suck it up, wipe away his tears and go to class. 

It wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. However, it wasn't the best. The rest of class were loud mouth, over confident and interacted with everyone whilst Bruce was the complete opposite. He always sat at the back of the class, always quiet and never spoke a word to anyone unless he was asked a question. He still had to put up with people snickering and whispering about him and today was no exception. 

Whilst the class was going on and Bruce was concentrating on his work he could overhear some people talking about what had happened earlier. 

_"Hey, Did you guys see what happened_ _this_ _morning in the hallways?"_ One boy asked turning to face his friends.

Bruce stopped what he was doing once he heard that and immeadely knew what he was talking about. 

"No. What went down?" The other asked curiously. "Yeah, tell us" Another added. 

"Well, Glenn had written this message on Banner's locker and -" The boy immeadely paused once he mentioned Bruce's name. He gave a quick glance at Bruce, who was currently looking down at his desk. 

Assuming that Bruce wasn't listening he continued. 

"-It basically said 'Bruce Banner Eats Shit'- " He said trying to contain his laughter whilst his friends snickered. "-And after that Bruce walked off crying" 

The other two then started laughing loudly catching everyone's attention. 

"Wow. What a whimp. Who the fuck cries over a message on a locker" His friend said

"He does. Only because he can't handle the truth. Such a crybaby" the other added. 

  
"Riley, Jordan and Wesley will you stop interrupting the class and get on with your work" The teacher scolded. The three of them just snickered.

Bruce shot Riley a glare as he as annoyed at the fact that Riley completely fabricated the event to make it seem like Bruce was only crying about the message when in fact it was everyone else's torment that brought him to tears. However, he wasn't going to try to explain to Jordan and Wesley what actually happened because they wouldn't believe or care about he had to say. 

The class ended and Bruce quickly walked out of there to avoid being teased about it some more. 

 

He just hoped second period would be better.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

  
Tony, Steve and Bucky were still walking together and they were taking a lot longer than expected. Everyone else had already gone to class and they were the only ones who hadn't arrived yet. Along the way Bucky had to go the bathroom and much to Tony's annoyment he and Steve and to wait for him.

Tony was leaning with his back against the wall with his arms folded whilst tapping his foot impatiently. He let out an irritated groan.

"Why is he taking so damn long?..Can't he just hurry and do his business" He asked, the irritation was apparent in his voice.

Steve just shrugged and shook his head "I dunno... sometimes you can't rush these things" he responded.

Tony just rolled his eyes and scoffed. "I don't care. He shoulda gone earlier! and now he's just wasting our time!" Tony exclaimed in annoyment

"Geez. Relax Tony.. It's not the end the world" Steve replied, his tone much more calmer than Tony's.

Tony just ignored him and walked over to the bathroom door and opened it slightly.

"Hey Bucky!. Hurry the hell up!" He yelled in

"Alright. Alright!. I'm almost done!" Bucky yelled back before cursing under his breath.

Tony shut the door and leaned back against the wall with a groan. At this point they were never going to make it to class and he knew that he was going to get flack for it.

Eventually, after what seemed like forever. Bucky finally came out of the bathroom.

"Finally. Took you long enough" Tony exclaimed in both relief and irritation.

Bucky just gave him a stern look. "Well, now that I'm here. We can go" he said whilst  gesturing his hand forward.

"Before Tony throws a fit" Steve added glancing a Tony with sarcastic smirk. Bucky let out a small chuckle. Tony just ignored them both and began to walk ahead with the two following behind.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

Bruce walked towards the door of the classroom, he could feel small traces of anxiety slowly begin to build up. He was nervous to go in and see all those people, he was nervous that as soon as he walked in he would be laughed at. He just stood still for a moment contemplating on whether to go in or to walk away and avoid it. 

_"Come on_ _Bruce_ _... you have to do this.._ _It's_ _going_ _to_ _be_ _okay.._ "  He thought to himself  trying be reassuring. All he had to do was go in, quicker he entered the quicker the lesson would be over.

" _Just take a deep breath and walk in.."_ He closed his eyes, clenched his fists  and breathed in and out a few times, trying to calm his nerves a little. Once he felt calmer he opened eyes and unclenched his fists

"Here goes" He said before entering.

As soon as Bruce walked in he immeadely caught sight of the one person he did not want to see again. There sitting right at the front and in perfect view of him was Glenn. Bruce felt his stomach churn and his nerves build up again, he was still angered and upset about Glenn humiliating him and now here he was in the same classroom. 

Glenn looked at Bruce and gave him a devilish smirk, he knew that Bruce hated it and knew that he had gotten under Bruce's skin from earlier. He knew just the slightest thing he said or did would set Bruce off and he loved it. Bruce saw the smirk that Glenn was giving him, that was the same smirk that had tormented him throughout the years. He knew that everytime Glenn would smirk at  him it always had malicious intentions behind it and he knew that Glenn was still reveling over what he had done. 

Bruce glared back at him with clenched fists, he wished he could just smack that disgusting smirk off Glenn's mouth and hurt him the same way he had been hurt. Everytime he saw Glenn the taste and feelings of hurt, anger, disgust and hatred took over. If only he could act on his feelings and just lash out on him. It would be immensely satisfying. 

 

_"Bruce... Bruce...Bruce..."_

Bruce was deep in his own thoughts to not hear sound of the teacher calling his name. 

"Mr Banner!" The teacher yelled, pulling Bruce out of his thoughts. 

He looked over at the teacher who was standing with her hands on her hips and a disappointed look on her face. Bruce gulped and relaxed his once clenched hands nervously. 

"Y-yes.. Miss Roberts?.." He answered shyly. A few of the other students snickered at the sound of his voice. 

"You've been standing there for two minutes doing nothing.. This there something going on?" She asked, not even attempting to hide her slight irritation with him. 

Bruce shook his head before speaking "N-no Miss.." 

Miss Roberts tutted and sighed. "Well, if there is no problem will you please take your seat so I can begin." She said whilst gesturing her hand towards his desk.  Bruce just nodded before walking over to his desk at the back with his head down. The students all snickered and mummered as he did so. "So stupid" one girl muttered "Time waster" another said. 

Bruce sat out down at his desk and just looked down at the vandalised wood on the top of the desk. He let out a small sad sigh, the lesson had barley begun and he already felt embarrassed. 

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

After what seemed like forever. Tony, Steve and Bucky eventually made it to class.  "Finally, We're here". Tony said letting out a sigh of relief. "We could have got here sooner if you didn't have to piss so badly" He turned to Bucky with a raised eyebrow. 

Bucky in turn just rolled his eyes and groaned. "Oh my god, man. We're here now aren't we. So quit whining." He responded before muttering something under his breath. Tony just shot him a quick glare before turning to Steve "Hey Steve, You got the time?" He asked. 

Steve looked down and his watch before speaking "Well... I don't think that matters because.. We're already fifteen. minutes. late." Steve made sure to empathize the last part. _"Fuck..._ _I'm_ _so_ _gonna_ _get_ _Shit_ _for this"_ he cursed to himself.  "Shit. We better go in Then. Come on". He went in with Steve and Bucky following behind. 

"It is a stylistic device that is defined as-" 

The three of them had walked In on Miss Roberts mid sentence, interrupting her teaching. The rest of the class had all stopped taking notes amd Miss Roberts stood there silently all looking at the three who had entered. 

Tony, Steve and Bucky all stood there awkwardly in silence. Bucky pulled his cap down lower to try to hide his face from embarrassment, Steve looked around trying avoid eye contact with Miss Roberts whilst Tony had unfortunately caught eye contact with her and she was obviously not pleased. 

"Nice to see that you three have finally decided to join us. Considering the lesson had begun fifteen minutes ago." She chastised. Tony could tell from the her folded arms to the expression on her face that she was anything but pleased. 

"Sorry that we're late Miss Roberts" Tony responded, trying to sound apologetic as possible. Miss Roberts didn't seem phased by it at all. 

"You can save the apologies for later. Mr Stark.." She chided. 

Tony shudded a little at use of his surname, usually when someone refered to him by his surname they were truly annoyed at him and Miss Roberts was definitely more than annoyed. 

"All three of you can explain to why you were late to turn up later on.. However, for now go and take your seats before you waste more of my time". 

The three of them nodded and moved over to their desks without saying a word. Bucky sat the end of the front row, Steve sat near middle of the second row and Tony also on the second row but near the end of it by the window.  Miss Roberts waited for them to sit down so she could resume teaching. She unfolded her arms and cleared her throat before speaking. "Now as I was saying, before those interruptuons-" she gave each one of them a quick glance as she said it. Tony in turn just rolled his eyes at her blatant attempt to throw shade at them, but it felt more condescending than anything. 

He quickly rummaged through his bag to grab his notebook and a pen so he could write down whatever exposition she was spewing out at them. He didn't really care about the things she was explaining and hated taking down notes, as he never really looked back at them. However, he wanted to avoid getting into more trouble than he already was. 

Tony placed his notebook on his desk, turning on a fresh page and began write. He could hardly understand what Miss Roberts was talking about as half of it didn't make any sense to him and didn't know what half the words she was saying meant. This was an English class but to Tony it felt like he was learning a completely new language with all these big words and definitions. However, Miss Roberts was insistant in everyone taking down notes so he had not choice but to. 

He was now halfway through his third page of notes and as he was halfways writing down a sentence the pen he was using had run out of ink. _"Shit.."_ He whispered to himself. _"Why did you have to run out now."_ He shook the pen a few times to try to get some more ink to flow but to no avail. Tony picked up his bag and looked rummaged through it to try and find another pen, but to his dismay he didn't have another one. He had already lent his spare one to Clint and forgot to pack some more.  

Tony couldn't ask Steve or Bucky for one because none of them sat close to him and he  certainly wasn't going to ask Miss Roberts to lend him one because she would most likely scold him for not having his own. He had no choice but to ask someone of the other students. 

Tony looked to the person sitting at the desk besides him. Suzie Johnson, she usually pretty kind and generious with people and had lent Tony a few things in the past but he had a feeling that if he asked her she'd most likely be annoyed at him for asking her to lend her another thing and he didn't want to take liberties and come across as   
as desperate.

_"So_ _that's_ _out the picture.."_

Tony then looked at the person sitting in front of him. Tyler Harris, unlike Suzie. Tyler wasn't at all generious with people and if anyone asked him anything from him they would most likely be cussed at. Tony just shook his head at the thought of asking him.

_"Definitely not..."_

Tony then looked to the person sitting right behind him. It was none other than Bruce Banner. Tony knew about Bruce but it wasn't much, all he knew Bruce as a shy and quiet person who liked to keep to himself. He didn't really see Bruce engage in any form of conversation with others and only spoke when the teacher asked him a question for if someone spoke to him first. The only time Tony had very had a form of interaction was when he said "Hello" to him but it was never anymore than that. 

He was very reluctant to ask Bruce to lend him a pen, not because he didn't like Bruce. Tony never had problem with him, but due to the fact that he had never really spoke to him let alone ask for anything. He didn't know how Bruce was going to react, but he wouldn't never know unless he tried. 

_"I really_ _don't_ _wanna ask... but... I got notes_ _to_ _write_ _..."_

Tony took a small breath in and out before calling out softly.

 

"Hey Bruce." 

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

  
When the class had begun all Bruce wanted to do was to listen to Miss Roberts, write down notes, stay quiet and just be left alone after what had happened. He didn't want any more moments of awkwardness or embarrassment, he had already had more than enough and it wasn't even halfway through the day yet. It didn't help that Glenn was in here, he was sitting proudly at the front, smiling, snickering and being able to interact with everyone in the class. Whilst here Bruce was stuck at the back, with no one to talk to, feeling isolated away from everyone whilst they all whispered, laughed and joked about it. 

Bruce didn't want to dwell on that, he was just focused on concentrating on the information Miss Roberts was giving. He was writing down in his notepad, ignoring the off hand comments people were saying. 

"Such a nerd." 

"Who has time to be writing notes, damn loser" 

"Friggn Teacher's Pet". 

He could care less about what they were saying, unlike them he was actually making effort to take notes and he knew it would be beneficial to him in the long run. Bruce knew that he had one thing above all of them and that was good grades. 

 

_"_ _It is a stylistic device defined as-"_

 

Bruce had stopped writing when Miss Roberts had stopped talking, he didnt understand why she had gone silent because he was looking down at his notepad. He assumed that somebody in the front row had interrupted her, as it was a common in her classes. That was another thing he had above everyone. Respect and manners. 

_"Nice to see that you three have finally decided to join us. Considering the lesson had begun fifteen minutes ago."_

He rolled his eyes when he herd that, "Great. Late Commers" he utterd to himself, his voice was very quiet so nobody herd what he had said. All he wanted was for Miss Roberts to resume the class. 

_"Sorry that we're late Miss Roberts"_

Bruce's eyes widened when he herd that voice, he could feel his cheeks begin to heat up as he recognised who had spoke. He slowly lifted his head to look up and a huge blush immeadely covered his face when he saw Tony Stark standing there. 

_"Oh my..."_ That was all Bruce could mutter because he even if he spoke he'd be lost for words. He was admired by what Tony was wearing. Yes, all it consisted of was a white t-shirt with a black jacket over it and blue jeans but the way Tony carried on himself made it look like so much more. Bruce couldn't deny to himself that he had a crush on Tony, it was blatantly obvious and he found that it had developed over the years. 

He had always kept it to himself because he knew that if people knew then it would be yet another thing for Glenn and everyone else to torment him about. He still hadn't told his mother because he was worried about what she would say even though she loved him to pieces he still got anxious about telling her and he was definitely never going to tell his father. 

Bruce was so distracted in his own thoughts that he didn't notice Tony sitting down at his desk. It didn't help much that Tony's desk was right in front of his, not that he was complaining. Bruce wished that he never wore the purple hoodie because he was not and sweating now. And that was thanks to Tony. 

Half an hour of class had passed and everyone was busy taking notes. Bruce was halfway through writing a sentence when he herd someone whisper his name. 

_"Hey Bruce"._

He didn't want to look up because he didn't want to talk to anyone and just concentrate on what he was doing. 

_"Psst. Bruce. Hey Bruce"_

Bruce lifted his head to look up, he looked to his right and saw that the person next to him was busy writing and no one in the front was calling him. 

_"Over Here."_

He then looked to the direction of the voice and immeadely felt his face heating up again. There was Tony facing back at him. _"Oh god..."._ Bruce couldn't believe that Tony of all people wanted to talk to him, he only ever said hello to him but never spoke and now this was happening. He didn't know how to act. 

"Urm.. Yes?" Bruce asked shyly

"I don't wanna bother you but I need you to do me a favor" Tony said

Bruce raised an eyebrow in confusion, why would Tony Stark need to ask him a favour.  

"W-what favour?" He asked. Bruce hoped wherever it was he could do it. 

"Well, I was writing all these damn notes down and my pen decided to run out.. I thought I had a spare one but I already lent it to a friend. Plus, I forgot to pack some more.." Tony explained.

Bruce just sat and listened to Tony explain himself, he wasn't bothered about what he was saying becaue he was just entranced by the sound of Tony's voice and the fact that he was actually talking to him. 

"So.. I was wondering if you could lend me one.. If that's okay?" Tony asked, his tone was soft and gentle. He knew that Bruce was an extremely shy person so he didn't want to sound to demanding or come across as rude or intimidating. 

Bruce was a little surprised at the way Tony was speaking to him, he didn't expect him to be so soft spoken. He was pretty sure that Tony was speaking that way because he didnt want to sound to too loud and not disturb anyone else but he appreciated it because and a lot of people spoke to him that way. 

"Oh.. urm... Sure... you can borrow one" Bruce responded.

He picked up his bag and searched through it, trying to find a spare pen. He hoped he had one. Bruce could feel Tony watching him and knew that if he wasn't blushing before he was certainly blushing now. After a few more seconds Bruce found a pen. 

"Ah. Here's one.." He held it out to Tony "Here you go".

"You're a lifesaver." Tony beamed as he took the pen. He looked at it then back at Bruce. 

"Thank You" He said, giving Bruce a smile 

Bruce felt himself blush even more then he saw Tony smile, He had seen Tony smile before but never at him and now it was happening. 

"You're Welcome" He responded, giving a small smile back. 

After that Tony turned back around and began writing again. Bruce just sat there for a moment trying to take in what had just happened. 

_"He spoke to me.. He_ _actually_ _spoke to me.."_

He smiled to himself as he continued writing. 

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

The class ended and everyone was gathering up their things and getting ready to leave. A few of the students stood up and were about to walk off before Miss Roberts stopped them. 

"Now. Before you all leave I would like to remind each and every one of you that there will be an exam next week" She explained, which earned a few groans from the students. 

"So I advise you all to study hard and read over your notes. It will be very beneficial towards doing well on the test. Understood?" She asked looking around at everyone. 

"Yes Miss Roberts" a few replied whilst others just nodded. 

"Good. Now, apart from the ones who I asked to stay behind" She glanced at Bucky, Steve and Tony. "The rest of you may leave" 

"Finally" someone muttered before getting up and walking out, the rest of the class followed behind. Bruce stood back and waited for everyone else to leave, he didn't want to caught amongst any of them. Once they had all left Bruce made his way toward the door, he was about leave when he was stopped in his tracks by Miss Roberts. 

"Bruce." She called out. 

He wasn't quite sure what she wanted but he didn't want to be rude and ignore her. He turned around to face her. 

"Yes Miss Roberts?" He asked, curious about what she was going to say. 

"You seem a little off today. Is everything alright?" She asked with concern in her voice and her expression. 

Bruce knew that she was referring to what happened earlier on when he first walked in. He was greatful for her concern but he didn't want to talk about it. 

"Everything is fine, Miss." He replied, that was a lie. Everything wasn't alright. 

Miss Roberts raised an eyebrow quizzingly, she wasn't quite sure on whether Bruce was being honest with her. 

"Are you sure?" She asked

Bruce nodded. "Yes, I'm sure. There's nothing to worry about a can assure you" he gave a small smile as he answered. He hoped he sounded convincing enough for her to just drop it and let him go.  Miss Roberts let out a small sigh, she knew deep down that there was a problem but she didn't want keep Bruce here any longer and she still had to speak with the other three. 

"Well if you say so. I don't want to keep you long so I'll let you be on your way" She gestured to the door and gave him a warm smile. 

Bruce gave a small nod "Thank you" 

"Have a good day" Miss Roberts said kindly. "You too" He replied as he turned and made his way out. Miss Roberts watched him leave and waited for a moment before turning to Steve, Bucky and Tony. They all just looked back at her in silence. 

"Now, as for you three. I don't want to keep you to long so I'll make this as quick as I can..." She spoke as she sat down on top of her desk, legs crossed with a serious expression on her face.

"Would any of you like to explain why you were all fifteen minutes late to class today?" She questioned as she folded her arms and eyed each of them.

The three of them remained silent and just looked at each other. No one wanted to speak, they all knew that if they told Miss Roberts the reason she would be very disappointed.

Miss Roberts sat still in silence, she was waiting for one of them to open up and talk. She was surprised that none of them were speaking considering that the three were a few of the most talkative. A few more minutes of silence passed before Miss Roberts spoke again.

"Hmm.. I'm surprised that you three are all silent all of a sudden. I can assure you that no one is leaving until someone speaks up. Now, will one of you tell me or do I have to pick someone to be the spokesperson?"

Still no one spoke up and remained as silent as ever. Miss Roberts let out a sigh and unfolded her arms, she was getting tired of waiting and had to resort in picking on someone to talk.

"Alright fine. I'll pick someone". She quickly glanced at each of them before settling on Tony

"Tony. Would you care to tell me?" Her question was rhetorical of course.

Tony in turn just groaned in irritation, he didn't appreciate her picking him to speak up for the others.

"Miss, why you gotta pick me?!" He asked, arms raised in confusion.

"Well Tony, I did say I was going to pick someone to talk and that person is going to be you" She answered, her tone was stern.

Tony leaned back in his seat letting out another groan. He really didn't want to speak for the others but he knew that Miss Roberts was never going to let them go until she got her answer.

He sat up and sighed. "I'll say this..." He paused for a moment, looking Miss Roberts in the eye. "Just Ask Bucky! He has the answer". Tony exclaimed as he pointed over at Bucky, who was taken back by Tony throwing him under the bus.

Miss Roberts turned her attention to Bucky and folded her arms again. "Alright then. Mr Barnes. Would you care to explain?". She asked him with a raised eyebrow.

Bucky looked down for a momment and cursed  "Ебать Это". He said it a little to loudly that Miss Roberts herd.

"Excuse Me. What was that?" She asked, her eyes blinking twice in shock and disappointment at the language. "I'm pretty sure that isn't the answer I'm looking for."

Bucky looked up at her and saw that she wasn't pleased he then immediately apologised. "I'm sorry..." He paused for a second. Miss Roberts nodded and urged him to continue.

"Alright, here's what happened. We are all on our way there but long the way I needed to go to the bathroom, I wasn't expecting  Steve and Tony to wait for me but they did, we then we all arrived together and that's why we were late" Bucky explained.

Steve and Tony looked at each other confused then back at Bucky.

"Wait hold up a minute. Bucky you asked us to wait for you. Did you not?" Steve questioned. "Exactly!" Tony interjected.

Bucky looked at them both. "Dudes!. I didn't know you were both gonna actually do it. Goddamn!" He exclaimed, trying to defend himself.

"Well Geez..sorry for trying to be a friend" Tony retorted. Bucky in turn shot him an angry glare.

Miss Roberts just shook her head and sighed. She really didn't want the situation to turn into a petty argument between them.

"Alright, Alright. I kept you three behind because I wanted to know was why you are all late, but what I don't want to hear is the petty bickering." She chastised. The three of them said nothing

"Now, as for the bathroom situation..I understand that you three are close friends-"

Tony scoffed at that, earning a disapproving glance from Miss Roberts.

"And you are willing to be there and wait for your friends. However, sometimes in situations like this and in life in general you have to leave your friends behind for your own benefit."

The three of them looked her in confusion, they didn't quite understand what she was trying to say to them. She then continued to speak.

"Yes, I know that sounds selfish but please hear me out. A lot of students here do get in trouble for being late to class or for not turning up at all just because they want to hang and talk with their friends and also wait for them without realising that by doing that it effects their learning time thus eventually effecting their grades and punctuality. Now, sometimes it's best to not waste that time and apply it to your learning and I can assure you it will be very beneficial." 

The three of them all sat silently listening and taking in everything Miss Roberts was saying. They all knew that she was speaking the truth and nothing but the truth.

"I'm not telling you this to make any of you feel bad. I am only saying all this because I want you to all to do better. I've known you three for years now and I know that you all have the potential to do well. I don't want to always scold you for being late because that's not what I'm here for. I just want the best for you "I hope you can understand that"

Miss Roberts did care about them all and only wanted them to do well, not just in their school life but in their lives in general. The three of them all looked at her and nodded. Miss Roberts nodded back and looked down at her watch to see the time.

"Good. Now I should let you go we've been talking for a while and I don't want to keep you much longer.  "You may leave and next time please don't be late".

"Yes Miss Roberts" they all said in unison as they all picked up their bags and stood up to leave. Miss Roberts gave them a warm smile and gestured towards the door.

"I would also like to quickly remind you about the exam next week so please, please read over your notes and study it will help."

Tony rolled his eyes, Steve groaned and Bucky cursed silently under his breath.

"Yes Miss Roberts" they repeated as they walked towards the door, they all just wanted to leave already and Miss Roberts was still talking.

"You three have a nice day" She said kindly. "You Too" was the last thing they said before walking out of the classroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew!. This chapter was long to write but I'm not complaining. I'm just glad I finally finished it. 
> 
> I wasn't quite at first on how to write Tony and Bruce interacting at first but the pen thing just flew into my mind (plus, we all know the struggle of a pen running out of ink mid sentence). And I'm pretty sure we've all had a teacher like Miss Roberts before. 
> 
> Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. 
> 
> See you in the next one ;) 
> 
> P.S  
> How many of you know what Bucky said in Russian? ;)


	4. A Momment of Generosity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter Here we go..

Tony, Steve and Bucky all let out a huge sigh of relief once they stepped out of the classroom. The three of them had been in there for almost twenty minutes which felt like forever. "I thought she was never gonna let us leave" Steve said; turning to the other two.

"I like Miss Roberts but Man.. She talks forever.." Tony added. Steve nodded in agreement "She was like.. 'I'm not going to keep you long'.." Tony stated; doing his best impersonation of Miss Roberts voice making Steve chuckle in the process.  
"But we are in there for almost twenty damn minutes...Oh,that's not long at all!" That last part reeked of scarasm on Tony's part to which they both laughed at.

Bucky just shook his head and chuckled to himself about the situation  
"To be honest we wouldn't have been in there that long if we just came clean about the situation, guys."

"Oh Really?..You don't say. You don't say." Tony responded as he clapped his hands; his words and actions riddled with scarasm.

"That's pretty rich coming from you, Barnes. Considering you didn't want to say anything In there"

Bucky jokingly scoffed and shook his head again. "You didn't want to talk either.. and yet when you were asked to talk **_you_** ratted me out" He rubutted.

"I wouldn't need to if you just came clean about it in the first place" Tony answered back. "Touché, Stark" Bucky responded unenthusiastically as he couldn't come with a better response.

Tony smirked at him proudly. He loved to get the last word in and win an arguement. It didn't matter with it was a serious one or just joking around, as long as he won it. It was just another part of his personality.

_***buzz buzz*** _

He felt the phone vibrate inside his pocket and immeadely pulled it out to look at the screen. It was a text message from Clint.

 _**Clint:** _ **_Hey Tones. Where u at?_ **

Tony quickly went to typing out his reply

 _**Tony:** _ _**Outside** _ _**Miss Roberts classroom** _

It was only a few seconds before Clint responded

 **_Clint:_ ** **_Alright_ ** _**.** _ **_I'm_ ** **_on my_ ** **_way_ ** **_'_ **

_**Tony:** _ **_K._ ** **_I'll_ ** **_wait, Don't take_ ** _**long** _ _**.** _

That was the last message Tony sent before he put his phone back into his pocket and his hand in the other one. His hand then brushed against something hard in the pocket and raised an eyebrow unsure of what it was. Tony took hold of whatever it was and pulled it out and looked down to examine it, it was the pen that Bruce had lent to him.

"Shit I forgot to give it back to him" Tony muttered to himself, he wasn't one to forget to return things but due to being kept behind by Miss Roberts it had slipped his mind completely. He looked up from the pen for a momment and caught a glimpse of Bruce walking past towards the lockers, he didn't seem to notice Tony standing there.

Tony was now contemplating on whether to go search for Bruce and return the pen or to just keep it for himself for the time being. He knew that it wouldn't be fair to not give it back as Bruce had been generious enough to even lend it to him.

After a few more seconds of contemplation, Tony eventually made a move and began making his way over to Bruce.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

 

Bruce was sitting outside soaking in the fresh air, he had been all hot and flustered after his interaction with Tony. Yes, Tony only asked him for a pen and usually that wouldn't be a big deal. However, due to his crush on Tony it meant even more that he actually spoke to him and was kind about it. 

He needed to get out of that classroom to avoid feeling embarrassed about it. He did get a few strange looks from people when he ran past them, but he didn't care becaue needed to go and compose himself and going outside for fresh air was the best option.

Fifteen minutes later, Bruce had cooled down enough and was ready to go back inside. He made his way inside, slowly making his way through the hallway towards his locker. Bruce caught sight of Tony from the corner of his eye and immediately began to feel his face heating up.

_"I hope he_ _doesn't_ _notice_ _me.."_

He thought to himself as he sped up a little bit to avoid being spotted by Tony.

When he got to his locker he saw that the awful messages from Glenn were still written on there for some reason and whenever people would walk past they'd snicker rudely, nothing new there for Bruce. 

He brushed it off and went to taking his books out of the locker.

That's when Tony approached him.

 

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

 

Tony stood there behind Bruce, who was still emptying his locker. He could tell that Bruce was unaware of his presence and didn't notice him walking over. Tony didn't want to startle him but he had to get his attention. He reached out his hand and softly trapped Bruce on the shoulder.

"Hey Bruce" Tony greeted.

Bruce turned his head to look in the detection of the tap and the voice and immeadely  
jumped in surprise, almost dropping his books at the sight of Tony's presence.

"Oh..urm.. Hey Tony..." Bruce responded shyly, clutching the books against his chest and looking away nervously. He could feel himself blushing out of embarrassment.

"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.. was just tryna get your attention that's all" Tony apologised, rubbing he back of his neck nervously. He felt a little guilty for making Bruce jump.

"No..No.. it's fine" Bruce responded, looking up at him for a moment before looking away again. He didn't want Tony to notice him blushing as he would be even more embarrassed than he already was.

"You Sure?" Tony asked as he raised an eyebrow quizzingly at him. Bruce looked up at him and nodded "Yeah.. I'm sure...". That was far from the truth as Bruce's feelings were on overdrive at this momment.

Tony just took his answer as fact and quickly changed the subject. "Well anyways, the reason I came over to you was to return this". He pulled out the pen from his pocket and held in front of Bruce.

"Oh.. that's the pen I lent to you..." Bruce replied; his face heating up as he glanced up at Tony. "Yeah, you were kind enough to lend it over to me so I thought I'd return the favour and give it back to you". Tony explained as he handed the pen over to Bruce.

Bruce took the pen; looking down at it for a second before looking back at Tony.

"T-Thank you.. that's very generous of you".

He was a little surprised at the action because it wasn't often that people would return things back to him. However, he most definitely appreciated Tony being kind enough to do so.

"Hey, No Problem, it's the least I could do". Tony wasn't used to being refered as 'generious', it wasn't really a word people would associate with him. However, he glad accepted Bruce's gratitude by giving Bruce a warm smile.

That made Bruce's face heat up even more, he could feel the blush on his face getting redder and redder by the second. _"_ _God, that smile.."._ was all Bruce could think at the moment. All he could do was give a small smile back.

**_*Buzz Buzz*_ **

Tony felt his phone vibrate once again and pulled it out to look at what it was. Another message from Clint.

_**Clint:** _ _**'Hey Man, Where u at???'**_

_**Clint:** _ _**'I've been** _ _**standing** _ **_here waiting 4 u for 5mins..'_**

**_Clint: Wh_ ** **_ere u_ ** **_gone_ ** **_, Bruh?'_**

Tony quickly went to typing out his response

  
_**Tony: So**_ ** _rry dude'_**

 _**Tony:** _ **_Had_ ** _**to** _ **_go and return_ ** _**something** _ **_'_ **

It was only second before Clint replied.

_**Clint: Coulda told me..** _

_**Clint: Been** _ _**waiting** _ _**ages now..** _

Tony rolled his eyes and scoffed loudly earning himself a confused look from Bruce

"Sorry it's my friend" Tony apologised before typing again.

 _**Tony: Bruh..** _ _**you've** _ **_only_ ** **_been waiting 5mins..._ **

_**Tony:** _ _**I'm** _ _**gonna be there in a** _ _**minute** _ _**.. so** _ _**just** _ **_wait._ **

_**Clint: You betta hurry your ass up.** _

Tony scoffed again and put his phone away; turning his attention back to Bruce.

"I-Is everything ok with your friend?.." Bruce asked nervously, he didn't want to seem like he was prying into Tony's business but he was just curious.

"Yeah, everything's good." Tony reassured; he could hear the concern in Bruce's tone.  
"He was just wondering where I was because I forgot to tell him". Bruce gave a small nod in response; He was glad that it wasn't anything bad.

"Well, I gotta go. I don't wanna keep my friend waiting on me, otherwise he'd blow up my phone with consistent texts" Tony said whilst letting out a soft chuckle.

Bruce just let a soft shy laugh in response. Hearing Tony's chuckle made his heart flutter, he could be sure that his face was as red as the lockers given he had been blushing so much.

"Urm.. Well I've also got places to be so I best be getting a move on as well" He stated; he needed to get away, not because he didn't want to be near Tony but because he might die from how hot he was feeling.

"Alright, I'll see you later then" Tony gave another smile as he turned to walk away.

"S-See ya" Bruce responded, giving a small smile back.

Tony gave a small wave to him and Bruce returned it as he watched Tony walk away in the other direction. Bruce turned back to his locker and sighed softly; looking into the empty space. That was the second time today that Tony had spoken to him, it was actually unbelievable. He just wished that he was more confident when speaking to people, that way he wouldn't be as nervous. That was something he admired about Tony; his confidence.

Bruce shut his locker and made his way to his next class. He could feel a smile appear on his face as Tony was fresh on his mind.

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

 

Making his way over to meet Clint, Tony was minding his own business when he came across Glenn and his girlfriend Mikaela. Tony rolled his eyes when he saw the two of them, he wasn't overly fond of Glenn because of his attitude and the fact that he tried to hard to rule the school and be buddies with him and as for Mikaela.. She was just a bitch. 

He tried his best to just walk past and avoid conversation but to no avail as Glenn and Mikaela  made their way over. "Hey Tony" Glenn greeted; that annoying smirk plastered on his face. "Hey Glenn..Hey Mikaela" Tony responded; trying his best not to sound unenthusiastic. "What's up?" He asked, knowing that they wanted something. 

"Oh nothing, we just wanted to talk" Mikaela replied; looking to her boyfriend with a huge smirk on her face. Tony gave them a raised eyebrow, he could tell that there was an ulterior motive behind it. "You Sure that's the only reason?" He asked, quizzingly. Glenn gave his girlfriend a quick glance before looking at Tony. 

"Well.. We saw you talking to Banner over there and we were curious to know why". Glenn questioned. Tony threw him a confused glance, he didn't understand why it was any of Glenn's business. Yes, he knew that Glenn hated Bruce but that had nothing to do with him. 

Tony let out a sigh before answering. "Honestly, I only went over to him to return a pen that he lent over to me.. That was it". He explained; folding his arms in slight annoyment about  being questioned. 

Glenn and Mikaela looked at other and snickered; the rude gesture was plastered all over their faces. They both faced Tony with smirks on their lips. "Oh Tony.." Mikaela cooed; condescendly of course. "Why the hell would anyone want to borrow off Banner?.." She asked rhetorically. Tony couldn't get a word in before Glenn spoke up again. 

"Exactly, he can barely afford to buy anything for himself due to how broke he is.." He said bluntly. Tony gave him a glare and was going to respond but Glenn was quick to continue. "Besides, just look at him.. is that really someone you would ask for stuff?.." The question was made to be rhetorical but Tony was ready to answer back. However in typical Glenn fashion he just had to keep on speaking. 

"As matter of fact he should be the one begging you for things. You come from a rich family, Tony and you have all that cash.. what does Broke Banner have?.." There was no response but the sound of Mikaela sniggering at Glenn's comment. "Exactly!.. No one can answer because he's got nothing" Glenn let out a chuckle and Mikaela joined in.

Tony continued to glare at the two of them. That was another thing he strongly disliked about the two of them; their way of putting others down was disgusting. Yes, of course Tony knew that he had a rich family with tons of money and that he could afford expensive stuff but he would never put anyone else down for not having what he had. At this point Tony had had enough of the two of them. 

"Well, if you say so.. but at the end of the day it was just a pen I borrowed, no big deal" Tony retorted. He just wanted this conversation to end. Glenn let out a small scoff at Tony's before he responded. "Listen Tones.." He stated; making Tony cringe at sound of his nickname coming from Glenn's mouth. "If you wanna borrow shit from Broke Banner that's up to you dude..."  Glenn remarked. 

"Just be sure to wash your hands afterwards" Mikaela warned earning a loud chuckle from Glenn "Good one, babe" he praised, kissing her on the forehead. Tony cringed in disgust at the sight. "Anyways we better head off now, See ya, Tony".  Glenn said as he and Mikaela turned to walk the away. "Bye" was the last thing Tony said; watching in distaste as Glenn walked away arm in arm with Mikaela.

 

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

 

It wasn't long before he was approached by Clint. "Hey Tones" he greeted but with no response. He glanced over in the direction of Glenn and Mikaela then turned back to Tony. 

"What the hell did they want?" He asked curiously. Tony looked at him and sighed "Nothing important" came Tony's blunt answer. Clint raised an eyebrow quizzingly but just brushed it off "Urm ok then.. anyways, I got bored of standing and waiting on you so I came over and then I see you talking to 'couple goals' " Clint said. 

"I thought they'd never leave me" Tony responded. "Why didn't you just tell them to back off?" Clint asked. Tony just shrugged and Clint rolled his eyes. "Tony, we both know that Glenn has been trying to be your best friend since 1901 BC " Clint stated; exaggerating the date which earned a chuckle from Tony.

"He ain't my best friend nor will he ever be.. honestly I don't even like the dude" Tony confessed. "Just because both our dads work together he thinks us two should be buddy buddy with each other, ugh.." 

Clint scoffed and rolled his eyes at how pathetic that actually sounded. "Yeah well anyways.. where'd you go off to?" He asked; changing the subject. "To give something back to someone" Tony answered. "Who though?" said Clint curiously. Tony wasn't to pleased about being asked but answered anyways "Bruce.." the answer was vague which earned him a confused glance from Clint, who obviously had no idea who he was talking about.

Tony faceplamed himself and groaned. "Banner!.. Bruce Banner" He retorted. 

Clint let out a surprised "Oh" as he finally knew who his friend was referring to. "But why?" He asked. Tony faceplamed again; unimpressed about being questioned about it once again. 

"I borrowed a pen from him in class and I went to go and give it back" He confessed. Clint just listen and nodded. "Oh ok cool.." He muttered, looking down and rubbing the back of his head. "Problem?" Tony scolded. Clint looked back up at him and quickly shook his head "Uh uh.. nope.. No problem at all" he answered, giving Tony a nervous smile. 

Tony just brushed it off and changed the subject. "Whatever, we better get a move on before we're late once again". Clint just nodded in agreement and the two of them headed off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well. That's this chapter done. 
> 
> Apologies for it taking so long I have over priorities I had to deal with.  
> And apologies for it being a shorter chapter. But I hope you enjoy it none the less :)


	5. Outcasted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fun lunch time antics soon become a disaster..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter starts off fun but later will get upsetting so please be warned. 
> 
> Time Skip to Lunch btw.

After an hour and a half of math and Mr Cameron ranting at them for not knowing algebra. Tony and Clint were making their way to the cafeteria to meet the others. "I sure need to get some food after burning myself out from that damn algebra test" Clint stated  "I mean let's be honest who has the time for algebra, I think letters and numbers should be kept way apart from each other". Tony nodded in agreement.

The smell of food hit their noses as they entered the cafeteria. They both looked around trying to find their friends within the crowd. "Hey, Where are they?" Tony asked; turning to Clint who just shrugged his shoulders. "Lemme text Nat" Clint pulled out his phone; scrolling through his message he selected Tasha and began typing.

_**Clint: Hey Nat. I'm in the cafe with Tony** _

_**Clint: Where are you and the others????** _

_**Natasha was quick to respond.** _

**_Tasha: Near the back of cafe by the window._ **

_**Tasha: You want directions??** _

_**Clint: Nah we good. We'll find y'all.** _

Clint put his phone away and turned to Tony. "She said that they're at near the back by the window". Tony facepalmed and shook his head. "You mean the place we usually sit?" He asked in embarrassment. Clint rubbed the back of his head and nodded "Yeah..." he replied nervously. Tony just scoffed and walked towards the back of the cafeteria with Clint following behind.

When they reached the table everyone was sitting around it; laughing and engaging in conversation. "Hey, the gangs all here!" Tony cheered. They all stop talking and turned to face the both of them. "Oh hey!" Everyone said in unison. Clint sat down next to Natasha and Tony sat next to Steve.

"So what were y'all talking about before we got here?" Clint asked curiously; pulling his bag of chips and opening them. "Oh we were just discussing the teachers that work here" Natasha answered; taking a chip out of Clint's packet and eating it, earning an annoyed "Hey!" from Clint.

"Ok, so who did you discuss?" Tony asked. "Well, we talked about Mr Aubrey, the history teacher" Steve replied. "Ugh" Tony exclaimed in disgust "He hates me". "Only because you cause trouble in his classes" Clint interjected. Tony shot him a glare "as if you don't do the same, Barton" he scolded. Clint said nothing and just ate his chips awkwardly as everyone else watched and laughed.

"Who else did you talk about?" Clint asked; trying get the attention off him. "Mrs García" Sam responded earning a chuckle from Bucky. "What's so funny?" asked Tony with a raised eyebrow. "Well.. Sam here" Bucky remarked, gesturing to Sam next to him. "He has a crush on her".

Tony almost spat out his drink upon hearing that, "Are you serious?" Tony asked turning to look over at Sam, he was dumbfounded from what he just herd. Sam sat there quietly before giving a small nod. Natasha, Clint and Steve were trying to hold in their laughter, Bucky sat there with a proud smirk on his face and Sam just sat there feeling embarrassed.

"See, it's true. He just admitted it" Bucky stated proudly. "Man, shut up" Sam grumbled; nudging Bucky in the arm. "Well... that's.. urm... interesting.." Tony trailed off awkwardly. "Come on, y'all. We've all had crushes on teachers before.. I ain't the only one" Sam exclaimed, looking at everyone.

Clint avoided eye contact and ate his chips, Tony turned away so Sam couldn't look at him, Steve looked down at the table; his face was now bright red. Judging by everyone's body language,  Sam knew he was right.

"See, I ain't the only one" He expressed to Natasha whilst gesturing to the others. She let a small chuckle and shook her head. "Well, you can count me outta that. I don't find myself attracted to teachers who are three times older than me".

Bucky coughed out the word "Liar", in response to Natasha. She gave him the side eye before folding her arms; placing them on the table and leaning forward.

"I'm gonna say two words..." She paused; looking Bucky straight in the eye. "Miss.Ranskahov.."

She smirked as she watched Bucky's face instantly turn red once the name left her lips. Sam looked at Bucky then turned to Natasha in confusion. "Urm.. who's that?" He asked curiously. "She's just a Russian teacher that our friend Bucky here finds super hot" She confessed. "Ohhh.." was all Sam could let out before he and Natasha began laughing.

"Now you know how it feels to be ratted out, huh Buck?" Sam said; playfully nudging his friend. Bucky didn't say a word and just sipped his drink in silence.

It wasn't that long before everyone on the table bursted out in laughter. The awkwardness of it all had disappeared as they all brushed it off as all a big joke. Something that was common within the group; No one took anything too seriously.

That's why Tony loved hanging out with them.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

Another class had finished for Bruce, surprisingly it had been a good lesson. He didn't have to deal with any negativity for the past hour and half. However, he was now very hungry and needed to eat. He made his way over to the canteen but stopped himself from entering. The anxiety had already begun to creep up inside him and it wasn't a nice feeling. 

He knew the momment he stepped in all eyes would be on him. He knew they would all laugh and make comments. Bruce was contemplating on whether or not to go inside, On one hand he wanted to because he was hungry but on the other hand he didn't wanted avoid the embarrassment. 

 

"Hey, are you going in or not?!" 

 

He heard someone ask which made him jump out of his thoughts. Bruce turned around shyly and saw two people standing there; a girl and next her was a boy, who Bruce assumed to be her boyfriend. Their arms folded and an angry expressions on their faces. Bruce wasn't sure how long he had been standing in the doorway of the cafe but these  people were clearly impatient.   
   
He couldn't bring himself to answer as he began stuttering. "I-I...". 

"Well?... hurry up and make your mind!" The female yelled, she was most definitely impatient.   
"You're blocking the damn door way!" The boy barked, the anger was plastered all over his voice. 

Bruce didn't understand why they couldn't just walk past him as the doorway was quite big enough. However, he certainly wasn't going to tell them that, because he hated confrontation.  The couple just looked at each other. They had had enough of standing and waiting. The boy grabbed the girl's hand and walked forward. 

 

"Move it!" He growled; pushing past Bruce roughly which almost knocked him over. "So stupid" he herd the girl grumble as they walked away. 

 

Bruce took in a deep breath in and out before entering the canteen. He gripped the handles of his backpack tightly he walked through the cafeteria with his head down. Bruce could feel people watching as he passed by each table. It wasn't long before he herd all the murmurs and the snickering. 

He lifted his head slightly to look around and find an empty table to sit at. By the looks of it all the tables were occupied. Bruce couldn't just sit anywhere because no one would let him. Everytime he walked by a table people would either place the bags on the empty seat or give a dirty look, warning him to stay away. 

Bruce was beginning to give up at this point, if he couldn't find a seat then he would most likely have to leave and eat in the bathroom again. Eventually, he found an empty seat on a table at the back. They were already two people sitting there, but Bruce didn't care at this point.  He was extremely hungry and needed to eat sooner or later so he made his way over.  Besides, they were sitting at the far end of the table so he wouldn't be that close

The two boys were talking when Bruce came over and sat down. They immeadely stopped talking and looked over at him with disgust and annoyment. "Eww" one exclaimed. "It's the banner kid" the other hissed. Bruce looked down, trying to avoid eye contact. 

"Let's move.. I don't want my food infected". He herd one say in disgust, the other responded "I don't either". The two of them then stood; grabbing their trays and quickly moving to another table. 

Bruce sighed sadly, he wasn't surprised by their behaviour but it still hurt nonetheless. He took out the packed lunch from his bag, placing it on the table. He could hear small giggles from behind him and just knew they were directed at him. Once again, he was left to eat alone and yet another laughing stock. 

He could hear laughter coming from the table to his right, he didn't want to look over at the people sitting there because they were probably laughing at him. Bruce went about eating his lunch, trying to block out the laughter. However, it continued and Bruce was becoming confused, he didn't understand why they were laughing so much. Yes, people laughed at him all the time but he thought they'd eventually become bored. 

After, the third wave of laugher. Bruce couldn't resist any longer and needed to know what was the cause of so much laughter. He slowly and nervously turned his head towards the table; prepared to see people pointing and laughing at him. However, to his surprise it was the complete opposite. 

There he saw Tony sitting at the table with all this friends. There were smiling and laughing with each other. Not one of them was looking in Bruce's direction, or making comments about him. Everything they were laughing about had nothing to do with him. Bruce had to admit he was shocked that there were people who weren't making him the butt of the joke. 

However, he couldn't be too surprised as Tony was sitting there, he knew that Tony wouldn't laugh at him because of how nice he had been towards him. Sure, he wasn't sure about the others as he didn't know them. He just had to assume that because they were Tony's friends, they wouldn't laugh at him. 

Bruce continued to look over at them, he was curious to know what they were all laughing at and deep down he wished he could be apart of it. Bruce turned his gaze towards Tony, he saw how happy he was with his friends. 

 

_"It must be nice to have people to sit and laugh with"_ He thought to himself. _"Tony is so_ _lucky_ _to_ _have_ _friends..._ _I_ _just wish_ _that_ _..."_. 

 

Bruce's thought train was cut off when Tony looked over at him. He could feel a blush forming on his face and looked away quickly, facing down at his food so Tony wouldn't notice that see had been staring. He went back to eating his lunch so it didn't look as suspicious. A minute had passed and Bruce assumed that Tony had probably turned away by now. He slowly lifted his head and turned to look back over where  Tony was sitting. 

He saw that Tony was talking and laughing with someone across from him, a red headed girl. Bruce had seen her around before but he didn't know who she was nor did he know that she was friends with Tony. Heck, she could be dating him for all he knew. However, it was none of his business as he wasn't apart of the group. 

Bruce began to trail off into his thoughts again when Tony looked back over at him. He could feel his face heating up once again, it would be awkward for him to quickly look away again as it would look suspicious. _"Oh my god.._ _he's_ _looking_ _over_ _at me again..._ _I_ _don't_ _know_ _what_ _to do..._ _What_ _should_ _I_ _do??"_. 

All these thoughts were buzzing around in his head. Bruce knew he couldn't just get up and move as it would most likely make it worse and he didn't want to embarrass himself. Right now, he wished he could disappear but that was impossible. 

 

_"Come on.. do_ _something_ _!... Anything!"_

 

The only rational thing he could think of was to just act like how any normal person would act in moments like this. _"Just Smile at him..."._ Is what the voice in his head said  and so he did. 

A small shy smile appeared on Bruce's face as he looked over at Tony. He was expecting Tony to immeadely turn away awkwardly but that didn't happen. 

Tony smiled warmly in return. The kind gesture made Bruce's face heat up even more but he didn't care; To him, seeing Tony smile was the most beautiful thing ever. It was one of the things that developed the huge crush he had on him. 

The exchange only lasted a few seconds before Tony turned away and continue  conversing with his friends. Bruce looked away, a smile still plastered on his lips. He knew at this point they his face was most likely as red as the Apple he was going to eat. 

 

That didn't matter because at this momment he actually felt happy. 

 

However, that wasn't going to last long as he felt two looming presciences approaching... and their intentions weren't good. 

 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

Bruce was about to take a bite out of his apple when he felt two people approaching him. He knew by their looming prescience exactly who these people were; it was none other than Glenn and his best friend Emil. They both chuckled as they looked down at him.

“Well well, it looks like Broke Banner is sitting all by himself” taunted Emil.   
"Like the loner he is" Glenn wisecracked.

He and Emil both laughed as Bruce looked down at the table, avoiding eye contact. Glenn had a mischievous smirk on his face as spoke. "You know, Banner... maybe you'd have friends if you'd shower more often.." Glenn said; matter of factly, although it was far from the truth. "It's that God-afwul stench on you that keeps people away".

Bruce stayed silent, he knew that he didn't smell but Glenn was trying to get under his skin. It was just another one of his tactics. This happened all the time.

"This is why no one sits next to you at lunch.. They don't want their food to get contaminated" Emil jeered; through his thick accent. The fact that he would even make it seem like Bruce was a disease that could infect people made Bruce feel disgusted.

Bruce continued to remain silent and just take in whatever comments they were saying to him. If he ignored them maybe they'd go away. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

Glenn reached over and picked up the apple that Bruce was going to eat; examining it. Bruce nervously glanced up at Glenn, who was looking down at him; that smug smirk on his face. "This is all you have?" Glenn questioned; pointing at the apple. Bruce opened is mouth to speak but quickly shut it.

Glenn took the motion as an answer and snorted with laugher. "You really are poor if this is all you can eat.." He paused for a momment; glancing at the apple. "Pathetic!" He exclaimed rudely; throwing the apple at Bruce.

It hit him hard in the chest causing Bruce to yelp out in pain. The two friends laughed it off. "Pussy!" Emil scoffed. "Such a whimp" Glenn replied.  Bruce looked away in embarrassment, he just wanted to get up and run away or else they'd continue with the tormenting.

"Isn't there a Toilet stall you should be eating in, anyways?" Emil questioned rudely. His tone was loud enough that a few people herd it; earning a few chuckles from bystanders. "That's where people like you belong". Bruce could feel his heart break at that statement, he was worth more than that but Emil saw him as less. 

"Knowing Banner, he probably eats from the toilet!" Glenn said crudely; he, Emil and the bystanders all laughed. "See, I told y'all he Eats Shit!" He boasted proudly. The cafeteria busted out in laughter.

Bruce could feel tears forming in his eyes, this is what he feared would happen. Glenn and Emil tormenting him and everyone watching and laughing. All he wanted to do was eat is lunch in peace.

He shot a glare towards two of them and found the strength to ask; "W-why are you doing this?.." His voice was shaky and nervous.

Glenn let out a sarcastic gasp. "Oh my god!. He speaks!" He announced jokingly. Everyone let out another howl of laugher.

Bruce clenched his fists in anger, he wanted punch Glenn in the face so badly but Emil was standing besides him. If he punched Glenn then Emil would most likey beat him up.

"Honestly, Banner-" Glenn said condensingly. "I think it's best if you don't actually speak.. You sound like a whiney child and that stammer is sooo fucking grating." There were a few murmers and laughter of a agreement.

It was bad enough with Glenn insulting his way of speaking and the people laughing but Glenn just so had to keep digging deeper. "You literally sound like this..." He began

"W-w-w-why.. a-a-are.. y-y-you..." Glenn was now mimicking the way he talked.

The whole cafeteria howled with laugher whilst Glenn stood there proudly as everyone did so and it was all at Bruce's expense. Bruce now clenched his fists tighter, he had  just about enough of Glenn's torment. He was upset and irritated by the fact that Glenn was making fun of something that he literally couldn't help.... and he just wouldn't stop.

"B-B-B-Bullying.. M-m-me!.."

At that point it had all became too much for Bruce to take. All the laughter, the tormenting, the negativity. Had all caused him to snap.

"Asshole!!" Bruce yelled loudly as he exploded in anger. He reacted in impluse and without thought slapped Glenn in the face. The whole cafeteria went silent; despite a few shocked gasps.

Glenn winced in pain as rubbed his cheek, which was now red from the slap. "Ouch!" He hissed glaring at Bruce. Bruce himself had immeadely realised his mistake upon looking at Glenn's and Emil's angry expressions. He began to back away in fear as Emil approached him; fist clenched and his expression full of rage. Bruce wanted to disappear and run away from the situation but it was too late as he felt Emil's fist connect with his face.

The impact of the punch was so hard that it knocked him to the ground. The cafeteria was filled with laugher once again. Bruce felt tears run down his face from the pain of the punch and the laughing. He touched his nose and lip; hissing in pain, he lifted his fingers from his face and examined them; they were covered in blood. He knew his nose was probably broken or his lip was busted, either way he had been injured.

Glenn picked up the bag full of Bruce's remaining lunch and tipped it upside down.

Bruce felt all the food fall on top of him and run down his face. "Take that, Broke ass  Banner!" Glenn barked in anger as he kicked Bruce in stomach to ad more insult to injury.

The everyone was pointing and screaming with laugher. Some people had their phones out recording the whole thing. He looked up and saw Mikaela pointing her phone down at him; an evil smirk on her face as she said "Say hi to the camera".

Bruce eventually broke down, His was covered in wasted food, blood and tears. He didn't want to be here anymore. He wanted to disappear. Bruce slowly pushed himself up; the pain was agonising but he didn't care. He had to get out of there.

He quickly grabbed his bad and ran from the scene. People watched in laugher as he ran away. People called out insults as he ran past them. "Pussy!". "Whimp!". "Weakling!". " **You Eat SHIT!!"**. Some even threw more food at him.

Bruce eventually made it out of the cafeteria. He didn't look back and continued running down the hallway, Tears streaming down his face as he made his way into the Boys' Bathroom.

He rushed over to the sink and looked into the mirror. He stared at his reflection in horror. He was right, his nose had been broke once again and his bottom lip was busted. His whole face looked a mess.

Bruce began to feel nauseous, he could feel his lunch coming back up quickly. He covered his mouth and quickly ran into one of the toilet stalls before he threw up into the toilet. Everything that had just happened had made him physically sick.

"Why... why me?..." Bruce sniffled.

He didn't understand what he had done to deserve this. He didn't understand why everyone hated him. But, what he did know was that it hurt. A lot.

" _Why?..._ " He whimmpered as he bursted out crying, in the stall. All alone. 

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

 

Tony and his friends where all playing a game of spin the bottle. It had been Tony's turn to go.   
"Alright suckers. Dare Me!" He exclaimed proudly as the looked at everyone. "Okay, Stark-" Natasha paused; thinking of a good dare. "Ah!.. I dare you to ki-". Her sentence was interrupted by someone yelling "Pathetic!" and a cry of pain. 

  
"What the hell?" Clint exclaimed in confusion as they all looked to where the yell and the cry had came from. They were greeted with the sight of Glenn and Emil standing by Bruce's table. "What the are they doing?" Sam questioned whilst everyone just shrugged as they were just as  confused.

They all watched as the two threw nasty comments at Bruce. "They're tormenting him again" Steve exclaimed loudly, he hated seeing people get picked on. "We can see, Steve" Clint responded. Steve groaned in annoyment; "So What!, are we just gonna sit here and do nothing!?" He chastised. "I'm sure, Bruce can handle himself" Tony interjected.

The rest of the group remained silent. Yes, they wanted to do something but they all  
assumed Bruce would defend himself or someone would step in and stop it. However, that wasn't the case as it just got worse and worse.

"I'm pretty sure we should step in now!" Steve scolded loudly. The others said or did nothing,  they could all see that the situation was escalating badly but they didn't want to step in yet in case they made it worse. They all watched Glenn and Emil with disgust and anger as they  tormented Bruce.

"He's such a dick" Clint said in response to Glenn's insults. "No one deserves to be called that!"  . "And people find that funny?, gross!" Natasha grimaced at the crowd's laughter.

When Glenn began to insult Bruce's voice they didn't find it funny. No, they were infurratied.

"Why's he making fun of the way he talks?!" said Clint, his tone was filled with anger. "Cos he's a fucking asshole" Bucky responsed, equally as mad.

It wasn't long before the situation blew out of proportion. They all watched in shock as Bruce slapped Glenn, it gave them a momment of relief but it was soon covered in rage as everything else happened. The punch, the laughter, the insults. They had witnessed enough.

Once Bruce had ran out the cafe crying, they all lost their cool. "Right, That's it. Enough is Enough!" Tony yelled, getting up from his seat and storming off towards Glenn and Emil. The others following behind.

Glenn and Emil were standing there, evil smirks plastered all over their faces as they joked about what had just happened. "That was hilarious" Emil chortled with Glenn laughing along. "It was.. and we got it all on video" Glenn snickered.

"Hey!" They both turned their heads and saw Tony approaching. Glenn smiled and walked forward.

"Hey Tones!" He greeted, cheerfully.

Tony; on the other hand, was less than cheerful.

"Don't, Hey Tones Me'!" He scolded, glaring harshly at Glenn. "What the hell was all that about?!" He asked. His tone was harsh and sharp. Glenn was taken aback by Tony's attitude, he didn't understand why he was so mad right now.

Glenn looked over at Emil who was just as confused. He then faced Tony and shrugged   
"What was what about?" He asked.

The rest of the group all scoffed and rolled their eyes in annoyment at Glenn's answer.  They knew that he knew what he had done.

"Don't bullshit me, Talbot!" snapped Tony.  "You know exactly what I'm talking about".   
Glenn smirked as he came to the realisation, he let out a small chuckle before speaking. "Oh.. with Banner.. It was all a joke".

Tony was now cutting daggers at Glenn, the fact that he would call tormenting someome a 'joke' made him sick to his stomach. Tony was about to speak his mind when Nastaha stepped in.

"A Joke?.. you call that a joke?" She questioned; her tone sharp with anger. Emil nodded in response. "Yeah, It was hilarious" He grinned; looking at his friend who also grinned. The group was less than impressed.

"How the hell was that 'hilarious?. You made the poor guy run outta here in tears, for God's sake!" Clint interjected. "That's because he's a whimp" Glenn countered; a smirk on his face whilst Emil just chuckled.

"Man, what the hell is wrong with you two!" Sam scolded. "You literally ganged up on him!". "That was cruel and heartless" added Natasha; added strong emphasis on the two words.

The smirks disappeared from Emil and Glenn's faces. They now realised that the others didn't find the humour in what they had done. "Geez.. that was a low blow, Romanoff" Glenn retorted.

"Tormenting and beating up a defenceless person is a low blow, dickhead!" Natasha spat. Glenn didn't respond; a little stunned by Natasha's harshness. "Geez, Y'all need to chill and liven up" He exclaimed; moving over to Tony "Hey, tell your friends to chill down" he placed his hand on Tony's shoulder.

"Back off, asshole!" Tony snapped; swatting Glenn's hand away. He had just about enough of Glenn's antics.

Glenn backed away in shock; holding his hands up defensively. "Woah.. woah.. Chill down!.." He shrieked. He had never seen Tony acting like this towards him; it was a first.

"I thought we was cool?" He questioned; looking Tony in the eye. Tony, however just threw him a glare. He could not be cool with a person who found pleasure in making people miserable.

"We. Never. Were..." He hissed. It was the last thing he said before he turned and walked away; his friends following behind. Leaving Glenn and Emil alone and stunned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this is the quickest I've actually put out two chapters close to each other... 
> 
> Anyways, I did warn you that it would get upsetting ( that's bullying for you).. 
> 
> However, I promise the next chapter will be a little more light hearted.

**Author's Note:**

> And so concludes the first chapter. Finally, I began writing in the summer of  
> last year and didn't finish it off until now. I just wanted to postpone publish it until I got It to the standard I wanted.
> 
> I'm not used to writing high school AU's as I find it hard to actually write something that is high school based (I actually hated high school so it stems from that). It's a bit difficult to write the characters as teenagers but fun at the same time because I can imagine what they would be like in a high school environment. 
> 
> Teenage Tony is like adult Tony but with an age difference 
> 
> Teenage Clint is kinda like adult Clint only teenage  Clint acts more unbothered and is more layed back. 
> 
> Teenage Steve... hmm... I don't know, I guess his like his adult counterpart  
> but I don't really think I've written him like that. It's hard to imagine Steve as a  
> teenager. 
> 
> And Teenage Bucky, omg... I feel like I've written him to emo ( no offence to emos) but he just comes off like that. Maybe I'll write him more happier and less aggressive In later chapters but for now I'm actually liking writing his character like this. 
> 
> Anyways I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter and will stick around for the rest.
> 
> Until then,  
> See ya then ;)
> 
>  
> 
> ( I actually had re edit this chapter because it looked a damn mess at first, hopefully I've done a better job.


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